Wish
by CoriWhoWritesStuff
Summary: A mysterious Pokemon grants James a wish to change the course of his life for the better. I'll add more if requested! [Ch. 12 is up. ^^]
1. Dream Come True?

Wish: Chapter One - Dream Come True? 

Notes: The first chapter in what could be my longest series to date, if I decide to go ahead with it, that is. ^_^ This one is gonna focus a lot on James, probably just cuz I love the poor guy (not THAT way, weirdos ¬_¬). Basically, James makes a wish, meets the mysterious Pokémon "Yume" (which, yes, I made up), and chooses to leave his current lifestyle to make that wish come true. 'Course, there's a lot more to it than that, but you'll just have to read it for yourself. ^_^; Rocketshippiness is in there a bit, but it's not really the central theme. And it's pretty darn melodramatic!! (How can you not like that? :P) 

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own the characters. Hope you're not too disappointed. :P 

***** 

"You just wait! Next time... next time we'll get you, I swear it! You won't even know what hit you! Isn't that right, James? Meowth? We _will_ get them!" 

James shook his head behind the retreating forms of Ash, Misty, and Brock, Pikachu still riding on Ash's shoulder, just like always. Their figures diminished as they walked away into the face of the setting sun, leaving Team Rocket, as usual, considerably singed and very weary. He looked at Jessie again, who was still ranting and raving, then down at Meowth, with whom he shared an uncertain look. Jessie might usually act this way after being defeated by their troublesome enemies, but this time she was definitely going overboard. 

"Jess?" he finally spoke up hesitantly. "Don't you think we should go now? It's getting dark, and..." 

"We can still catch up to them! If we hurry now, we can surprise them and steal that damned rodent while they're not expecting us!" She sounded excited, and also as though she had made up her mind and would do nothing else. 

"I don't think... dat would be a good idea," Meowth added to James' effort to dissuade his female partner from her plan. 

"Oh, you two are no help at all," Jessie scoffed, beginning to stride rapidly down the path the other three humans has taken. After only a moment's hesitation, James ran to catch up, finally managing to stand in front of her, blocking her way and placing both hands on her shoulders. She scowled up at him suspiciously. 

"James, if you don't get out of my way right this instant..." 

"Jessie, listen. It's getting dark, and we've already failed once today. I don't know about you, but I think I'm too tired to be humiliated like that again. Now why don't you just calm down and--" 

"How dare you try to get in the way of our victory?!" 

He hadn't anticipated the hard slap she had aimed at his face, and so was unable to dodge before it connected. When his ears had ceased ringing at last, he opened his eyes to look down at her, seeing a sight he had never thought he would witness. Jessie, her eyes spilling over with tears in genuine grief. 

"What... what's the matter?" he managed to ask once the shock had subsided. 

"Oh, James," she murmured sadly, "I want to go home. I just want to go home." Then she had collapsed in his arms, hugging him tightly while her tears soaked into the front of his uniform shirt. After awhile, he pulled her up so that she stood on her own, his still burning cheek resting against the cool wetness of hers for a brief moment. He didn't say anything, but helped her along further into the forest, with a very worried Meowth trailing closely. 

***** 

The "home" Jessie had been speaking of was the small cabin hideout they had temporarily established themselves in while the twerps were in the area. Now that they had finished cleaning themselves up and had eaten a rather unsatisfying meal of canned food, the discouraged trio had elected to sit outside, where a cooling breeze was blowing to ward off the heat of the day. 

Leaning against the side of the cabin, James looked over at his red-haired partner, sitting so close by his side that her bare arm rested against his. By some unspoken agreement they had both dressed in nearly identical outfits - their sleeveless black undershirts and a pair of casual, non-uniform pants. Meowth lay in a tightly curled ball of fur on Jessie's lap, purring softly in his sleep as she stroked him occasionally, her eyes focused on something only she could see. The scene might have looked odd to anyone watching, but tonight they seemed to be drawing strength from their closeness. 

James took the rare opportunity to study his partner's relaxed face; it wasn't often he could let his eyes linger on her profile without the fear that she would take offense, or worse yet, beat him within an inch of his life. He also wasn't used to seeing her gentle side, petting Meowth instead of fighting with him, sitting quietly and contemplating rather than being rash and excitable. But he felt it wasn't her fault, and had always chalked it up to the intense pressure to succeed that they had been under lately. Right now he was unsure as to why she was acting this way - she had even apologized for slapping him earlier. But it didn't bother him terribly, so he let it go without questioning. 

Eventually, she noticed his gaze and returned the look, trying to her best to give him a decent smile, but only ending up barely curving her lips. He had to look back down at his folded hands in his lap before he could speak, thankful for the dim light hiding his flushed and nervous face. 

"Thinking about something?" 

"Yes... I suppose," she answered with a sigh, leaning her head back up against the rough wall of the cabin. "Thinking about how nice it would be to win for once... We would be rich, famous, Team Rocket's top agents, maybe even legends, and we would all be so happy... Meowth... you... me..." She trailed off for a moment wistfully, her eyes gazing up at the tiny pinpoints of stars beginning to finally poke through the veil of night. "That's quite a dream, isn't it?" she concluded with a short laugh, turning her eyes back to him again. 

"Yes..." he agreed, mostly to humor her. He was afraid that he knew the truth of the situation, and that was that they would most likely never know true happiness while remaining a part of Team Rocket. But telling her so would probably only earn him one of her infamous lectures. Still, he wished she and Meowth would realize that sometime, even though he had only just begun to realize it himself. 

"You're doubting," he heard her scold lightly; this forced him to smile, as he should have known she would read his thoughts. 

"Sorry, Jess," he simply said, which she seemed to accept, resting her head down on his shoulder in an unusual display of affection. 

"Just you wait, James..." she whispered to him before she drifted off into sleep. "We'll be happy together someday... you and me both..." 

The word "together" seemed to echo in his brain as he stared up at the sky by himself, his heart swelling with an emotion he wasn't too accustomed to feeling. While his eyes drifted among the stars, his thoughts drifted from one thing to another: Jessie, Meowth, being truly happy all together... Yet those thoughts always seemed to return to Jessie and the things she had just said, much in the same way his eyes went back to the same bright star many times. That star seemed different from the rest, twinkling and pulsing with a faintly pinkish glow. 

_God, James_, he thought to himself, shaking his head in mock dismay. _Wishing on a star must be the biggest cliché in the book, but... I really _do_ wish for us to all be happy... _truly_ happy like we've never been before..._

It wasn't long before he too was asleep, lulled gently by the sound of Jessie's breathing and the star, winking now in a rhythmic and soothing way. 

***** 

He awoke again with a start, seeing Jessie now curled up on the ground with Meowth close by her side. After smiling for a moment, he rose slowly, thinking to perhaps bring out a few blankets since it had gotten so chilly. 

Something suddenly froze him in place, the unmistakable feeling of eyes somewhere, watching him. His own eyes traveled nervously around the perimeter of the cabin, scanning everything from the roofline to the edge of the forest beyond. Nothing could be seen, but the feeling couldn't be shaken so easily. He thought of quietly waking Jessie and Meowth, but no amount of whispering worked. 

Quickly walking to kneel beside them, he wondered whether this sudden paranoia justified waking up his friends, who would more than likely be rather upset at being disturbed. But as the feeling grew even stronger, he figured there was no other choice. 

He gently shook Jessie, but to no avail; she simply would not awaken. Panicked, he felt for a pulse to discover it was still there, if faint. Meowth was the same way. He sat back, feeling more frightened than he could remember being in a long time. What was happening... 

He didn't have to wonder long. 

"Your friends are fine, but they will not awaken until morning." The soft female voice came from everywhere and nowhere in a way that made James wonder whether it was just inside his own head. 

"Is... is someone there? Where are you?" he asked shakily, afraid that he might only be talking to himself. 

"I am here," the voice replied soothingly. "You just cannot see me now." That did little to calm his fears. 

"But you... have to be somewhere... why can't I see you... what are you?" 

"This may seem extraordinary to you right now, but I am a Pokémon. The reason you cannot see me is because I have no solid physical form. I usually appear as a star to humans, although that is not what I really am. I may also appear as a human, if you would prefer that." James was still largely uncomprehending as to what the implications of this meeting were, but he nodded anyway. Maybe seeing what was speaking would help him relax somewhat. 

But he was unprepared to see a swirling pink ball appear, spinning about quickly before expanding into a human shape, it's features slowly coming into existence. Then there was a woman standing there, a woman with long blond hair flowing around her gentle face with it's kind green eyes. Her pink and white robes moved about her as though there were a breeze, although James could feel no air stirring now. The only thing that was really unsettling about her now was the fact that he could see right through her to the trees behind. He swallowed hard. 

"So you... were that star... and you're a Pokémon? Some kind of psychic type?" The woman smiled, apparently finding amusement in his questions. 

"My name is Yume. Although I have psychic abilities, I am not really of a certain type. I am a creature created by the wishes of people." 

"Wishes...? What do you want with me... with us?" 

"You had a wish, didn't you?" Then he realized. 

"Just because I wished on... on a star...? No, this is a joke. This is some kind of dream. That wishing on a star junk isn't for real." 

"Perhaps it isn't real... if you are wishing on a real star." She looked totally serious, but James was still in a state of disbelief. 

"Why me?" was all he could think to ask. 

"Well, you were the first to wish on me tonight. Beyond that, you have a very noble wish. It is not just for yourself, but for others as well." 

"So I suppose you're just gonna grant my wish, just like that?" he asked skeptically. 

"No." 

"See?" James began angrily. "What did I say? I knew this couldn't be real... This is just some kind of expensive trick. Well, you know... if this is a joke, it's not even funny! I suppose any minute now Jessie and Meowth are gonna wake up and... laugh..." As he turned to stare at his friends' still barely moving forms, it began to sink in a little. Maybe this wasn't a dream after all. It might be all too real... 

Yume's voice cut into his scared thoughts. "You did not let me finish. I may not be able to instantly grant your wish, but I _am_ able to put you on the right path to attaining the wish yourself. This is what you must do." She paused briefly to be sure that the blue haired boy was listening before continuing. 

"Before dawn, you must have taken your things and been gone from here for some time. You must travel the long road that serious Pokémon trainers must travel, and that is the road that leads to the Pokémon League. There you must compete and win to become a master. Then you will be able to grant your own wish." She made it sound so simple... but then... 

"Leave? I can't leave them now!" James nearly yelled as the realization of what this would mean hit him fully. "Didn't you see us tonight... We're closer now than we've ever been! And you want me to leave _now_?! When I'm so close to... to..." He sank to his knees, the burning rush of anger subsiding. Getting to the Pokémon League could take a year, at the least. Going that long without... 

"Was your wish false?" Yume interrupted again. "Look inside. This is the only chance I can give you. Is the wish true or not?" 

"I... I want it... more than anything... but at least can't I tell them what I'm doing? That I'll have to leave them? They'll be worried... They'll think I abandoned them. I don't want that... to happen." 

Yume shook her head very slowly. "You may not have contact with them in any way until you have completed your journey. It is the only way they will understand in the end; you must make that sacrifice." 

James' face fell and he hugged himself tightly, as though to ward off the chill that seemed to be creeping over his body. Seeing his expression, Yume hastened to speak again. 

There is one thing I may do for you. I can put a small link between your mind and the mind of the girl. You will be able to feel how distant she is from you, and also her emotions. You need only think of her, and you will know these things. 

He nodded stiffly, still unsure but willing to go through with it if it would somehow make his friends happy. 

"And there is one more thing. I know that right now you have certain criminal tendencies which will need to be kept in check; in order to be sure that you control them, I will provide you with this." She waved her hand slightly, and James felt the sudden coolness of metal encircling his left wrist. Looking down, he saw that there was indeed a band of golden material there, a sort of bracelet which, when he inspected it, would not slip off and had no clasp visible anywhere. 

"I don't understand... how will this..." 

"You will find that out for yourself," Yume said with a small smile. "But now I must go, for you have a ways to go tonight. Do you have any more questions?" 

"How... how will becoming a Pokémon master make us happy...?" 

"You must also discover that on your own. Farewell, for now. This is not the last time you will see me." Before he had the chance to question her further, she returned to the form of the swirling pink ball again, then dissolved into nothingness. James remained where he was, even though the feeling of being watched was gone. 

Despite the presence of his friends, he felt alone. 

***** 

It had taken barely ten minutes for him to gather up his few possessions in the smallest pack he could find; he didn't want to take too much from his partners. Leaving them was hard, but he only let himself look at them one more brief moment before he plunged into the forest in what he thought was the general direction of Viridian City, walking fast so that he wouldn't lose his nerve. If this was the only way... 

A thousand questions still crowded his mind, maybe more. _Am I a good enough trainer? How will I get more Pokémon? And money? What about this weird bracelet? What if...what if someone recognizes..._

He stopped abruptly, looking down at himself. In his haste to leave, he had thrown on his uniform again, probably out of habit. And he had left all his other clothes behind. He silently cursed his own stupidity. _Perfect. I choose to act the idiot now, of all times._

Before continuing any further, he stripped off his uniform top with the incriminating red 'R' and shoved it in the pack. That would have to do for now, but later he would need to find some other clothes. Somehow. 

Slinging the pack back over his shoulder again, he continued trudging through the thick trees, his feet beginning to feel as heavy as his heart. What if he couldn't do it... what then? 

The scuffling of leaves behind him made him stop once again, straining his ears to hear if the sound repeated. When nothing happened, he shrugged and continued walking. The next time he heard it, he didn't stop, hoping whatever it was would just go away. 

Yet as time went on, he began to get annoyed. Scooping up a rock he could see in the dim predawn light, he whirled around to hurl it angrily at the offending noise. "Why don't you just go away?!" he yelled. 

He could see it hop to one side, partially hidden by a tree. One small black eye and a round blue ear could still be faintly seen. "Mar?" it squeaked nervously. 

"Whatever. I don't need company. So get lost already." James began to stalk away, but stopped _again_, one leg still stretched out in front of him. "Wait... wait a minute. That was a... It couldn't be. But what _am_ I doing? I need Pokémon... What an idiot I am." 

He turned back to search for the creature, hoping it couldn't have gone far. "Hey... you can come out now. I didn't mean what I said before." He crouched down in the grass, extending a hand out. "Come on." 

What he had thought was a shadow turned into the round shape of a Pokémon, it's mouse-like features easily distinguishable. "Marril?" it seemed to question him. 

"A Marril..." he whispered in awe. What one could be doing in a place like this was beyond him, but he thought it better not to wonder about it now. "Yes, it's alright. I won't hurt you." The mouse Pokémon sniffed the air tentatively, then jumped into his arms, squeaking it's name happily. 

"There now... see? I won't really hurt you." James actually smiled at this stroke of good fortune. "I don't have a Pokéball with me right now... You must have been abandoned or something. Gosh, wait until the Boss..." he trailed off, shaking his head hard. No, he no longer had to report to anyone. Even if it was a Pokémon the Boss might not have looked down on... His spirits lowered again, he let his new friend climb up onto his shoulder to continue on his way. 

Hours later, the sun was up and shining through the trees in dappled patterns, yet those trees had shown no sign of thinning out, and if anything had seemed to become thicker. He had just about reached the point of total exhaustion, using all his remaining energy to continue putting one foot in front of another. The world appeared to be getting blurry, spinning around so dizzyingly that he couldn't quite stand up straight anymore. The Marril was squeaking repeatedly in his ear, but he didn't really hear it as he fell to the ground at last, emotionally and physically drained. 

He rolled onto his back to stare at the fluttering leaves above when another sound did come through to him: the loud buzzing of a swarm of Beedrill overhead. But this barely had time to register before the world went from blurry to black.


	2. New Friends?

Wish: Chapter Two - New Friends? 

Notes: Picks up where Chapter One left off (no, really). :P James is rescued by a girl named Myrea, and then the fun REALLY starts... The two Slowpoke Myrea owns are named after my own two adorable Slowpoke, Lemon and Lime... Which, by the way, have just recently become the proud new parents of baby Citrus... Yes, I already know I'm crazy. :P 

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon (no, really, I don't). :P 

*****

"Well, everything seems to be fine here so far. I doubt we'll find anything out of the ordinary today anyway, we never do... And could you two hurry it up a little?" 

The green-haired girl turned back with a smile to see the pink, ponderous forms of her two Slowpoke still walking along at the same slow speed behind her. "Honestly, you seem to get slower and slower every day. But then, you're Slowpoke, so I guess it's okay," she concluded, laughing a little. "Isn't that right, Lemon? Do you think so too, Lime?" 

"Sloooow..." 

"...poooke..." they seemed to agree. The girl laughed again, bending down to scratch behind their ears. 

"Alright then, I guess you've had enough exercise for this morning. Back into your balls with you." She reached into the front pocket of her overalls to feel for the tiny objects, then pulled them out and pushed the button to expand them. With a flash of red light, the two Pokémon were back in their balls; the girl dropped them back into the pocket before continuing down the forest trail. 

It was the perfect kind of day, really - the sun shining just right through the trees, not high enough yet to be hot, although the leaves protected the earth here from most of the heat. Still... the girl figured there were better ways to spend her summer than wandering around Viridian forest in search of any poor Pokémon trainers unlucky enough to have been attacked by one or more Beedrill. The attacks had become more recent since summer began, probably because more trainers were out due to warmer weather. Or maybe more _Beedrill_ were out because of warmer weather. Whatever it was, someone needed to patrol the area where most of the attacks were occurring to make sure the victims were properly treated for stings, not to mention the fact that some solitary trainers might be totally incapacitated and far from help of any kind. 

"And, since I'm such a nice person, I volunteered," she sighed to herself. "It's so hard being nice..." Then she grinned good-naturedly, shifting her red-framed glasses up higher on her nose as she scanned the new area for anything unusual. Satisfied that nothing was out of the ordinary, she continued on her way, whistling occasionally. In about half an hour or so, she'd stop for lunch, and... 

Then she heard it - the faint sound of someone, or perhaps a Pokémon, making an insistent and definitely pleading cry. Forgetting everything else, she quickly ran off the trail in the direction of the sound, feet pounding on the hard ground as the noise solidified into what was without a doubt a Pokémon's cry. Her medicine bag bounced wildly and a bit painfully on her back, but she barely noticed things like that when someone needed help; she _was_ glad, however, that she had returned her Slowpoke before this had happened. 

All of that fled her mind when she finally reached the source of the disturbance. A boy lay sprawled out on his back on the grass of a small clearing, several discolored, swelling patches of skin on his face and arms showing that he had indeed been stung. The fact that he was unconscious was immediately evident by the way he wasn't responding to her presence or to that of the squeaking Marril. Without pausing to note the details of the boy's appearance or even to marvel at how the Pokémon had been unharmed, she quickly knelt by the boy's side, rummaging through her bag for the necessary items to at least treat the visible stings, for now. 

***** 

Half an hour later, when she had originally been thinking of lunch, the boy was resting fairly peacefully on the cot at her station, a small one-room building that housed her supplies. But instead of eating, she was still watching the boy. The Marril lay close by his head, resting as well. 

She had barely managed to support his weight on the five minute walk there, let alone carry two packs at once. Yet she had managed somehow, and the puffiness was beginning to recede from around his face, leaving him looking almost normal again, except for his lip, which still seemed to insist on swelling. How he had managed to get stung _inside_ his mouth was something she would probably never know. Removing his clothes to check the rest of his body for stings had resulted in nothing, probably because the Beedrill wouldn't have had much interest in a target that had most likely stopped moving early on. She didn't dare attempt re-dressing him, so she had had to content herself with covering him with a blanket. The gold bracelet on his wrist had caught at her curiosity, but not for too long. 

"This job _does_ have the occasional perk," she mused aloud to herself, grinning widely. "You really aren't that bad... just a little skinny," she told the boy self-confidently, barely managing to suppress a laugh that might disturb him. She knew that he had not passed out from fright, or even from the toxin in the stings, but from sheer exhaustion. Hopefully he would wake up on his own before too long so he could tell her what he had been doing to make himself so tired. 

She cast one last look at his face, still finding herself attracted in a way to his delicately handsome features, figuring him to be somewhere around 17, although his hairstyle made him look more boyish. Then she finally turned to start looking through the pack he had been laying on, in the hope that it would provide some kind of clue as to his identity. 

Lemon and Lime were already snuffling curiously at the bag with their broad noses; she knelt and shooed them away with a smile. "I let you two out and you try to get into trouble. Snooping... well, I guess that's what I'm doing too, but at least I'm allowed." Unzipping the pack, she carefully let it's contents fall to floor to begin sifting through them. 

The first thing that caught her eye was a piece of white material marked with bright red. Unfolding it showed that it was a long-sleeved shirt, the red being a large "R" on the front. 

"Team Rocket..." she whispered in amazement, immediately recognizing the symbol. "Don't tell me I've unknowingly rescued a criminal... Heh, I'm not quite ready to call the police yet." Folding the shirt up and putting it aside with the clothes he had been wearing when she found him, she returned to her inspection. 

Most of the rest of his things were fairly ordinary - a toothbrush, a few pairs of socks, two Pokéballs. The only other object that really stood out was a tattered photograph of a girl with gravity-defying red hair. She didn't look as though she had been posing for the camera, but like the picture had been taken without her knowing. Seeing the red "R" on the girl's shirt, she wondered offhand whether she was his partner. She put everything back neatly, frowning as she looked up to see the boy still asleep. 

"Well, if you're so tired, I've got other things to do. Wait here. Well, it's not like you're going anywhere," she told him before attending to those other tasks. 

***** 

When James first awoke, he didn't open his eyes, but remained perfectly still. 

_Meowth... Jessie... How could I have left you?_

Instantly, a feeling flashed through his mind that told him Jessie was still a good distance away, but not too far from where he had left her. Emotions also crowded into his thoughts - distress, fear... sadness? That must be what it was. 

"I never should have... left you," he mumbled aloud, groaning when the movement of his lips caused him pain. 

"Hey... hey, are you awake now?" The clear feminine voice above his head made his eyes pop open, those disturbing emotions fleeing when he no longer thought of Jessie. 

There was a girl standing over him, the long green strands of hair around her face dangling very close to his own. The rest of her hair was pulled into a bun near the top of her head, and she wore square glasses with red frames over her purple eyes. Those eyes were full of questions, and James could only imagine what they would be. 

"Where am I?" he managed to ask waveringly. 

"You're at my station in Viridian forest. I was out looking for Beedrill sting victims, and I sure found one today." She seemed to have a bright and cheerful personality, and her smile dominated most of her other features. "But you'll be okay, since I treated your stings and they seem to be turning out alright. Except for that one on your lip, but you're just going to have to live with that for awhile. Oh, sorry... My name's Myrea. What's yours?" 

He continued to stare at her, almost dumbfounded by the speed at which she talked. "J... James," he stuttered, cursing inwardly afterward for letting himself slip like that. Using his real name would make it easier for anyone who might be looking to find him. Yet he was sure that he wouldn't be around here with this "Myrea" for long, so it might not matter. 

"James..." she repeated, appearing to look him up and down as though appraising him. "Yes, it fits you. So James, mind telling me why you're out here in the forest, exhausted like that, without watching out for Beedrill nests?" She leaned forward with her eyebrows raised, clearly awaiting an answer. James' mind raced through the possibilities. 

"I'm a... a trainer, is all. I'm on my way to the Pokémon League, eventually..." 

_God, James. Like she's gonna believe you._

"Oh. I saw the two Pokéballs... but there wasn't one for your Marril." That was when he noticed that the Marril was sitting close beside his head on the cot, looking very happy that he had regained consciousness. 

"I... I didn't have any Pokéballs... I just found it last night... it followed me." 

"Really..." Myrea looked over to where he could see his clothes and pack sitting on the floor, then back at him. "Is there something you'd like to tell--" 

"M... my clothes! Then what am I..." James quickly looked under the blanket, only to confirm his worst suspicion, that being that he was completely naked. He could feel his face beginning to burn furiously, but before he could demand an explanation, Myrea gave him one. 

"Excuse me, Mr. Ungrateful, but it's standard procedure to check an unconscious victim's body for stings. Thoroughly. And since you didn't have any say in the matter at the time, you shouldn't complain." The way her eyes smoldered hotly at him made him reconsider his initial reaction, but then she was smiling broadly again in a flash. "Don't worry about it. I did my job and nothing more. Not that I didn't enjoy it," she added, almost as an afterthought. The way she laughed then made his face burn even hotter. 

"Now..." she began once she had composed herself enough. "I had to look through your pack to see if you had any ID. I know what that shirt means... I'm just hoping that you're some kind of runaway. Well?" Again, her manner demanded an answer. James sighed, thinking that telling her at least most of the truth might be best. 

So he told her most of it, leaving out Yume and instead saying that he had chosen this path on his own, hoping to make his friends happy and show them there are other ways to be that way rather than being involved in Team Rocket. Which wasn't too far from the truth. Myrea nodded after he was done, and he thought she must believe him. 

"So what other Pokémon do you have?" she asked next, indicating the Marril. 

"Oh... Weezing and Victreebel are in their Pokéballs... that's all." 

"Hm. You'll need more than that if you're really serious about this. The other thing... clothes. You need some more decent clothes. How old are you?" 

"19..." 

"19... I thought you were younger." She smiled a touch sadly. "You're about the age my brother was... and he was a bit larger than you, but I think it will work. Wait here." Without another word of explanation, she ran right out the door. 

James stared after her for a time, then sat up, stretching a little as he inspected his arms. The stings didn't hurt at all, and had almost disappeared from his skin. He could still feel his lip throbbing dully, however. He looked around the room at the shelves and boxes full of supplies, absently petting the Marril at his side. Why was this girl so interested in helping him, anyway... 

Then his gaze landed on a couple of Pokéballs sitting on the small table near the entrance. His mind instinctively went into "Team Rocket mode", and his immediate instinct was to get up, steal them, and be gone by the time the girl came back. 

But the moment that thought crossed his mind, a sharp pain originated in his left wrist, sending stabbing bolts up through the rest of his body, similar to the feeling of a Pikachu's Thundershock. The pain subsided eventually, but he still had to lay back down, clutching the edge of the cot hard and trying to calm his erratic breathing. 

"Marril?" the little Pokémon whimpered it's concern. 

"I'm... I'm fine," he managed to croak out, but his mind was racing as to what had just happened. Then he remembered what Yume had said about controlling his "criminal tendencies", and he stared at the offending bracelet, shaking his head slowly. "I guess I did find out, didn't I..." 

"I'm back!" Myrea's voice announced cheerily as she walked in carrying a pile of clothes. "I brought several so you can pick out what you want to wear for now. I hope they'll be alright. Why don't I just step outside and you can put them on now. Maybe you'd be more comfortable while we talk if you're not naked." She put the clothes down, laughing the whole time as though it was a great joke. James just hoped he wasn't blushing too brightly as she waved before she went out the door. "I'll be right outside. Just open the door when you're ready." 

He waited until she had closed the door completely before getting up. He didn't take long in selecting a shirt, figuring that she might think it funny to just walk in on him at any moment. It was just a plain white T-shirt, which barely hung down over his hips, but was definitely roomy enough. To his embarrassment, the pile included a few pairs of underwear, one of which he did put on, but still felt strange about doing so. A pair of blue jeans that were maybe one size too large was next, and there were even white socks and a pair of blue and white shoes that actually fit perfectly. Looking down at himself, he realized that it was probably not what he would have ever worn normally, but figured it might not be so bad. It was definitely more comfortable than some of the dresses Jess had put him in when... 

The feelings came back... fear, sadness... anger, now... 

He tried to block them out as he opened the door. Myrea nearly fell in on him as though she had had her ear pressed to it, but she was standing up straight and looking him up and down so fast that you would never have guessed that had been the case. 

"You look good in those... of course, my brother did too," she approved. 

"I guess... but isn't your brother going to need..." 

"No... my brother isn't alive." 

"I'm... I'm sorry." 

The fleeting shadow of sadness only crossed her face momentarily before it was gone again. "That's okay. We don't need to talk about it." 

"Oh... ah..." James began, grasping about for a new topic. "Do you have Pokémon?" he questioned weakly, gesturing at the two balls he had once thought of stealing. 

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do!" She sounded entirely too happy about that, which made him more than a little nervous. Perhaps they were both gigantic Gyarados. But when she called them out to show him, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. 

"...Slowpoke...?" 

"Mmhmm. Meet Lemon and Lime, my two adorable babies. They're the best two Slowpoke in the world." 

"...Really...?" 

"Yes, really. You haven't seen them battle," she replied with a knowing grin. She called them back, then clipped their Pokéballs on her belt. "Now. Show me what direction you were going to reach Viridian City." 

James followed Myrea outside, and confidently pointed out the direction he had been traveling. "Gee. It's a good thing those Beedrill stung you, or you never would have made it. Viridian City is _that_ way." She pointed in the opposite direction. 

"Oh... r... right. I knew that." 

"Suuure you did. Which reminds me to tell you something. I'm going with you." It was then that he noticed the backpack she was wearing, bulging quite obviously with her things. His eyes narrowed slowly. 

"You were planning this all along, weren't you?" 

"Of course. Look at it this way. You're all alone, with apparently no sense of direction, you have no money, no extra clothes, heck, you didn't even think far enough ahead to bring more than one pair of underwear. Face it, you need someone to look after you. I'm only 16, but I think I can take care of you. Besides that," she continued with a slow smile, looking him up and down again, "after I've seen your--" 

"I don't think that--" 

"--I definitely can't leave you." 

He sighed heavily, knowing there probably wasn't any way he could change her mind. "What about your job?" 

"It's just a summer job. My sister takes over for me when I can't do it, so I'll just leave her a note and she'll understand." 

"What about your parents?" 

"They're not... living... anymore, either. I don't want to talk about it, but... Anyway, my sister and I are pretty much living on our own, and we've been taught at home for a long time, so that isn't a problem..." 

"But won't your sister get lonely--" 

"No! She has a ton of friends! Now quit trying to change my mind! I'm going, and that's it!" 

"Okay, okay..." he soothed, backing away a step. 

"Oh, don't do that," she scolded lightly. "Why don't you get the rest of those clothes in your pack while I write the note. Then we can be on our way." James simply nodded, still unsure as to what exactly he had just gotten himself into. 

***** 

"I don't know! I don't _know_ where the hell he's gone! Do you think he _told_ me?!" 

Meowth backed away from Jessie, who looked twice as livid as she had the night before. "I know dat... but what're we gonna _do_? We gotta look for him or somethin'!" 

"No we don't. We don't need... some spoiled little brat dragging us down anymore. You know he was. Now let's go. We've got rare Pokémon to capture." 

The cat Pokémon stared after her, wondering why she was doing this. He would have thought her reaction would be anything but this, judging from what he had heard last night while pretending to be asleep. And although his instincts told him they should search for their missing friend, he knew that he would end up going with Jessie's decision, just like always. 

Meanwhile, Jessie's mind was racing with a million different emotions at once. After the way James had been acting last night, she would have thought... No. This just showed that she really could trust no one. Not even the person who had been her best friend for so long. 

She continued walking, without waiting for Meowth, trying to harden her resolve. 

"We don't need him," she whispered to herself. "I don't..."


	3. Believe

Wish: Chapter Three - Believe 

Notes: Oh boy... Chapter 3! Are we all excited now? Umm... anyway. In this chapter... well... James basically learns to believe in himself more than he used to. Which is a pretty bad summary of the whole thing, I suppose, but you're going to read it anyway, so it doesn't matter. Is it just me or am I not making sense today? Oh well. 

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Pokémon... it's not that I don't wish I did... 

*****

"Five hundred for a Pokéball? You've gotta be kidding! The last time I was here, they only cost..." 

James watched in amusement as Myrea irately protested the high cost of Pokéballs for a moment longer before walking over to look out the window at the passersby. Marill was sitting on his shoulder, watching him closely as though it was trying to figure out what he was thinking. What he _had_ been wondering for some time now was if anyone would recognize him; hopefully they wouldn't, not with these clothes. Maybe he could get a haircut too... 

He sighed, the strangeness of his current predicament catching up to him again. A few hours of travel (in the right direction) was all it had taken to get to Viridian City, where Myrea had insisted on buying him some Pokéballs and other supplies. He had protested her spending money on him like that, but she had brushed those protests aside easily and showed that she was very adept at getting her way, much the same as Jessie could. And as for Jessie herself... 

The emotions he had been receiving from her for the last several hours had been rather confusing, drifting back and forth between sadness and an odd sort of determination. Right now he really just hoped that she would be alright, and that Meowth could talk her out of doing anything rash. He missed the both of them so much already... 

"Hey, James! What are you doing over here anyway? Let's go! I got everything... stupid price increases, though." Slowly, he turned to see Myrea smiling at him, her arms quite full of the things she had just bought. Her smile faded a little when she saw his expression. "Hey, what's the matter? You sick or something? Or are you thinking about..." She shook her head abruptly. "Never mind that now, we can talk later. Let's just go, okay?" 

He nodded briefly and followed her out into the fading sunlight, where shadows were beginning to fall long and black against the earth. A few people glanced their way curiously, but thankfully they weren't approached by any of them. In silence, they walked back into the forest, stopping at the clearing they had previously picked out to spend the night in. Myrea dumped everything on the ground, then began to set up a sort of "camp", if one could call it that. James just watched without really seeing, his mind still on the events of the previous two days. 

"Excuse me? You're standing where I want to put my sleeping bag." 

"Oh... oh, sorry," he mumbled, stepping out of her way. Then he noticed that she had already set up his own things. He blinked for a moment before he noticed her watching. 

"Thanks..." he offered rather lamely. 

_God, James. That's great. You're so good at being grateful._

"Isn't a problem," she replied with a shrug. "You just look so... spaced out. Wanna talk about it?" She stepped closer, evidently just to see him better in the failing light. But he still began blushing lightly, and turned away from her intense scrutiny. Sometimes it seemed like she made him so uncomfortable... like she was somehow _willing_ him to tell her things. But the rest of the time since he'd met her, like on the walk to Viridian, he had felt completely relaxed with her in pleasant conversation. This was confusing, but he promised himself he would figure it out later. 

"Not right now," he mumbled in reply, seating himself on his own sleeping bag across from hers. Actually, it belonged to her and she had let him borrow it, since he had forgotten his. Now she wasn't looking like she was just going to let the subject go. 

"You know... I feel real bad about all this... borrowing so much from you, and then having you buy all that stuff for me..." he said, hoping to change that subject. 

"Hmph. Well, it's not like you're _making_ me. I _want_ to help you. Is that so bad?" she asked crossly, folding her arms and giving him a look that would have rivaled one of Jessie's. 

"No... I... just... I..." 

She smiled then, using that same disturbingly abrupt emotion change. "Look at it this way," she continued, flopping down on her bag and leaning in toward him. "You interest me. And that makes me really want to help you out. Like I've said before... you _really_ need help, where do you think you'd be right now without me?" It looked like she was about to start laughing again, the way she did when she truly seemed to find something about him to be funny. Which was another confusing thing to him. But she didn't laugh, instead shook her head at his pained expression. 

"Come on now. I don't want to make you feel bad about this. Be happy that I want to help you. I like to see you smile, if you must know." When this produced nothing but more blushing and stammering from James, she _did_ laugh. "Alright, I get it. I'll try to stop embarrassing you. Try..." she giggled. "How about we eat? Would you like that?" 

"You even brought food..." he managed weakly. 

"Sure! Now cut out the 'I should be taking care of myself' act. This won't take long." 

True to her word, it only took Myrea about half an hour to build a small fire and heat up a few cans of food - what she called "survival food", but James was all too used to it. It was only when they were nearly finished eating that she spoke again. 

"So what are your Pokémon like?" 

James looked up from the rest of his food, blinking rapidly as though trying to comprehend her question. He sat back slowly, thinking over the best way to put it. 

"Well... I don't know much about Marill, since I just got it." He looked down at the little blue Pokémon, resting peacefully by his side, for a moment before continuing. "And I would have to say that Weezing is just about my best friend, we've really been through a lot together... it just needs a little more experience in actually winning." Here he stopped for a moment, sighing heavily. "Victreebel... is... is... well, hyperactive." 

"Hyperactive?" Myrea asked quizzically. 

"You see... it... it's kinda... sort of..." 

"Just call it out." 

"I'm not sure you want that..." 

"Oh, come on. How bad can it be?" 

"You asked for it then... or rather, _I'm_ asking for it," he mumbled. Fishing around for a moment in his pack, he came up with it's Pokéball and stared at it for a moment. "Here goes nothing," he sighed again, tossing it out to the edge of the ring of firelight. 

"Oh my... well, I see... what you mean... Does that hurt?" 

"Not really. I've never been in here long enough for it to actually start digesting me." It seemed like his voice was echoing slightly from inside it's mouth. Myrea tried to stifle her laughter, certain that James really wouldn't appreciate it as he finally managed to get his Pokémon off and back into it's ball. But she _had_ to laugh at the way his hair looked now. He shook his head despondently. "Now you see?" 

"Yes... but I really wonder why it would do that... Either it needs a lot more training, or your hair tastes like cotton candy," she teased. 

"I'm beginning to think it's both," he responded with a smile, which set her off yet again. When she was finally through, she had to wipe tears out of her eyes. 

"Geez, James... You make me laugh so much. I like you." This comment seemed to sober him a little, and he looked away while trying to think of a reply. But when the silence went on too long, Myrea spoke first. 

"Do you miss her much?" 

"W... who?" 

"That girl in the photo. I guessed she was your partner or something." James was a little shocked at this point, but figured it only made sense that she saw the picture when looking through his pack. That picture had been something he had kept for a long time, but had never really admitted to himself why. 

"I... I guess so." 

"You guess?" Myrea began incredulously. "How can you just guess? I know you must. Don't deny yourself the truths of your life... it's not right." This time the silence went on much longer while she just seemed to stare at him, maybe waiting for him to say something. Before too long, however, she just shook her head and began to stand up. "Well, anyway. I guess it's time to go to sleep now... We can start training a bit in the morning." And without saying another word, she put out the fire, then climbed into her sleeping bag, leaving James to merely watch again. 

Long moments later, with Marill huddling up close to him, he finally lay down himself, reaching out to Jessie and her emotions again. He wished he hadn't. What he felt was... anger. It was directed at him, he had no doubt about that. He also didn't blame her one bit. Offhand, he wondered whether Myrea was angry with him now as well. 

He didn't bother trying to stop the tears he felt welling up beyond his control, his only hope that maybe Myrea was asleep and wouldn't hear anything. 

But Myrea was listening, and wondering herself whether it would be wise to do something to comfort him. Ultimately, she decided to wait and see if things could possibly get better in the morning... 

***** 

"Wake up! C'mon, sleepyhead! It's time to get up! Hey!" 

James opened his eyes a tiny slit, just enough to see the bright beam of morning sun shining directly on his face. "No... no, Jess, I don't wanna capture Pikachu today..." he mumbled, pulling the top of the sleeping bag back up over his head. 

"'Pikachu'? Did you just say 'Pikachu'?.... Oh no you don't." 

The comforting darkness turned back into that annoyingly bright light as Myrea grabbed the sleeping bag and yanked it off. "Are you dreaming? You better get up so you can get started training, or you'll never make it to the Pokémon League! Come on, come on!" 

"Okay, just quit pushing me, I'm awake," he moaned, finally sitting up and blinking blearily at his surroundings. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was, but when that reality came back to him, it wasn't necessarily a relief. 

"Breakfast?" Myrea asked with a smile, her head popping directly into his line of sigh. He jumped in surprise, then stared at her. She didn't seem mad in some way like she had last night. But then, her emotions did tend to be highly volatile. He nodded dumbly, his capacity for speech failing him, like it had seemed to quite often lately. 

It didn't take him long to devour the plate of food she had already prepared for him, and she seemed to greatly approve of his appetite. He finally stood, looking down at himself with a wry smile. 

"I guess there's something to be said for sleeping in your clothes..." 

"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?" she replied, looking up from feeding Marill a bit of it's own food. "You get up and you're basically ready to go. Assuming you changed your underwear before you went to bed." A wide grin split her face, suggesting that she was about to start teasing him again. 

"Come on..." he began plaintively. 

"Don't worry. You can do it now if you want. It's nothing I haven't... _seen before_." 

"No... um... I think I'll be fine for another day." 

"Men... men have such disgusting habits," she sighed in mock dismay, before bursting into a fit of laughter. Fortunately for James' modesty, she made it through the rest of cleaning and packing up without making any more obnoxious comments. 

"There, now everything's ready to go!" she announced happily. "But first... I want to see how good your Pokémon are. Lemon and Lime need a little exercise, anyway." She made a nice little dramatic show of calling them out, leaving James with an amused smile in spite of himself. "Of course, they'll only fight one at a time, but it seems they do better if they're both out at once," she told James with a confident nod, as if that explained everything perfectly. 

"Oh... um... so what do you want me to use first?" 

"No, no, no. That's not the way you do it! You're supposed to be confident. Just call something out, surprise me! You'll never make a good trainer if you're unsure of yourself," Myrea chided. 

James shook his head, trying to focus a little harder. "Alright." He grabbed Weezing's Pokéball from his belt, hoping to look and act a little more sure of himself. "Weezing, go!" 

"Weez... ing..." it groaned out happily, although James was fairly certain that only he knew it well enough to tell that it was happy because if it's perpetually sad face. 

"Okay, Lemon... we've never been up against a Weezing before, but you should be just fine. Are you ready?" 

"Slooooww..." one of the Slowpoke agreed, ponderously making it's way forward. James wondered if Myrea could possibly tell them apart - they looked exactly the same. 

"I'll let you have the first move," she grinned, still looking much more confident than James felt he could ever be. He nodded slightly, but couldn't seem to stop staring at the Slowpoke; it didn't make sense that it could be as powerful as Myrea liked to say it was. 

"You know, that's my opponent's usual first mistake. They're so busy wondering if I'm crazy or mocking my Pokémon that they don't pay close enough attention to what they're doing. That's not the main reason why my babies are at such high levels, but it's one of them." James just nodded again, resolving to do his best for the sake of his friends. 

"Weezing, use your Smokescreen attack!" Thick clouds of black smoke billowed out from the poisonous Pokémon at it's master's command, making it hard for James to even see Myrea and her own Pokémon. 

"Agility!" He could still hear her though, and his jaw dropped in shock. 

"A Slowpoke with... Agility?" Remembering what she had said about not paying attention, he quickly shifted back to the battle at hand. "Take it by surprise and use Tackle!" he suggested next. He could only faintly see something moving through the smoke, but what it was he couldn't be sure. Unsure of the next move to make, he hesitated, eyes straining to see how the battle was going. 

Finally he heard Myrea call out, "Good, Lemon! Now hit it hard with a Confusion attack!" 

"Weezing, use Sludge! Blind it so it can't see to confuse you!" The haze was clearing a little, but the sight that met his eyes wasn't too promising - Weezing had obviously not been fast enough with the Sludge attack, the steady glow emanating from around the Slowpoke showing that his Pokémon had probably been confused already. This was confirmed when Weezing slowly turned about and headed straight for James; fortunately enough, it didn't use Sludge on him, instead used another Smokescreen. He began to cough, waving the smoke away desperately. 

"No, Weezing!" He managed to call the poor confused Pokémon back before it could do any more damage, then ran aside to escape the black cloud. Tears leaked from his tightly squeezed eyes and he continued to cough from inhaling too much smoke. Eventually he became aware of Myrea standing next to him, gently patting his back while she waited for his coughing fit to die down, concern filling her purple eyes. 

"Are you okay? I'm sorry that happened, it's just the unpredictable part of using Confusion. There now. Do you feel alright? Can you breathe?" 

"I'm fine," he barely choked out, trying to brush away the hand she had put on his arm as if to steady him. 

"Cut that out," she said sternly, grabbing it again. "You need to sit down for a bit. Here." She led him along to a large tree, where she seated him at it's base and knelt beside him, still watching patiently. He closed his eyes against the continuing stinging sensation, sagging back against the tree in relief. 

"Mar... mar..." he heard Marill whimpering somewhere close by. Something pushed under his hand; he opened his eyes enough to see that one of the Slowpoke had nudged it up onto it's broad nose. Patting it uncertainly, he looked over at Myrea, who smiled gently. 

"See? Even the Pokémon are worried about you. Lemon is just apologizing. You really shouldn't be so ungrateful all the time." 

"Sorry," he sighed, shaking his head slowly. "But that was pretty pathetic, wasn't it..." 

"Actually, no. Your Weezing did an excellent job, despite the difference in levels. I think if you keep working at it, it could be really great." 

"Are you sure..." 

"Now you're doubting! What is it with you? You're going to be a Pokémon master, right? James, you've got to _think_ like one. Believe in yourself and your Pokémon." 

_Believe in... myself?_

"You know... you're making a lot of sense. I'm glad I... I met you." The adoring smile that grew on Myrea's face was almost worth the struggle of saying those words. 

"You see... That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me! There's hope for you yet!" With that, she flung her arms around his waist, hugging him so hard that it felt like she'd squeezed the rest of the air from his lungs. 

"Th... thanks," he moaned, sounding rather like Weezing. 

***** 

"So who's the gym leader in Pewter now, anyway? I thought that one... squinty-eyed kid..." 

"You mean Brock," Myrea laughed at James' description. They were continuing on through Viridian Forest, in the direction of Pewter City. It would take several days to reach that destination, but they planned on training along the way, which would lengthen the journey to at least a week. "Since Brock left, his dad, Flint, took over. He's not that tough... heh, he has to spend most of his time taking care of all those kids. Last I heard, all he has is a big old Onix. The Boulder Badge has never been easier to get... which is a shame, I suppose. Although it's good for trainers just getting started." Her sidelong glance clearly indicated that she meant him. "Plus, your Marill and Victreebel will be great against him." 

"Assuming that Victreebel listens to me." 

"Well, we'll work on that this week. So stop worrying about it. Because I know you are!" She began to hum happily to herself, her arms up behind her head and apparently completely at ease. 

James allowed himself a small smile, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other rather than letting himself think of anything that might bring him down now - such as whether or not he would really make a competent trainer, or... Jessie. 

And hopefully, Myrea's outlook on life would rub off on him soon.


	4. Two Weeks

Wish: Chapter Four - Two Weeks 

Notes: It's about time! James gets his first badge in this chapter. *ooh* *aah* That's all I'll say. ^_^ I called it "Two Weeks" because... well, those seemed to be the two words I used most often. Go ahead, count how many times I use that phrase. :P 

Disclaimer: I disclaim any ownership of any actual Pokémon character in this story. (That sounded good, but I'm not sure I know what it means...)

***** 

"So, you ready? James! Hello? This is Earth calling James! Wake up!" 

"Huh? Oh." James blinked at Myrea's frantic tone of voice, then looked around himself for a moment. Now he remembered. He was in the Pewter City gym, getting ready to battle for his first badge. He suddenly didn't feel so good. 

"So where _was_ your brain just then? You have to focus on this! Or if you're not ready, we can leave and come back la--" 

"No, I'm ready, really. I was thinking of... good battle strategies... yeah." He grinned down at her disbelieving face. After spending two weeks with her, he felt like he already knew her inside and out. Maybe it was because they had spent nearly every waking moment in each other's presence. True, the majority of the time was actually in training, but he felt much more comfortable now around her, and his attitude and general mood about the situation he was in was a lot better. In short, without Myrea, James was pretty sure he wouldn't have even made it this far. 

She was still looking at him now, her hands on her hips while she awaited a true explanation. Somehow, she had the uncanny ability of knowing when he wasn't telling the truth. What he had really been thinking of was Jessie, and about how proud she would have been if she were here, watching him get his first badge. At least, that's what he hoped. 

He tried his best not to think of Jessie all the time, knowing that when he did so, his mind drifted away in a flood of emotions; emotions that were sometimes almost too hard to bear. As such, Yume's gift to him was at the same time a blessing and a curse. But he knew that in order to succeed, he must focus on the good to come rather than the pain of the present. 

"What? You told me that thinking of your strategy beforehand is good, right? So I'm thinking about it," he told Myrea, hoping the innocent route would work. Her expression remained unchanged, however. 

"If you say so. Just so you know, that innocent act never works with me." She flashed him a quick smile, and he blinked, this time in shock. Before he had the chance to think on that further, she continued. "You better get going! Flint's gonna think you stood him up. Now, you remember everything I've told you, right? Set up a good defense before you use any offense, then--" 

"Alright! I remember everything! Geez, you'd think you were my mother, sending me off to school or something," he groaned. 

"And don't you use that attitude around _me_, young man," she countered in a mock-motherly tone. Then she giggled. "Go on. I'll be watching." She hugged him quickly, then dashed off to sit behind the barred-off sideline to do just that. James swallowed hard, feeling ill. He wondered if all trainers felt like this when they fought their first major battle. He had no idea. 

Hopefully he _was_ ready for this, and all the training he had done under Myrea's guidance would pay off. Although he was certain that this wouldn't be too tough a fight in the first place. Squaring his shoulders, he tried to look resolute as he walked into the main room of the gym, where the battle would actually take place. The gym leader, Flint, was standing at the far end of the rocky field surface, but there was no one else in the massive room, save for Myrea and Flint's rather large group of children clustered at the sideline. When James took his proper place across from Flint, the gym leader began to speak. 

"You are James, here to battle me for the Boulder Badge?" 

"I am," James answered, hoping his voice was steady. 

"Very good. I wish you luck, and you may call out your Pokémon," Flint said next in his gravelly voice. He didn't really seem to be that bad of a guy, in James' estimation. Now, which Pokémon to use first... 

James glanced over at Myrea, but she was glaring at him viciously. He quickly faced forward again. _Right. Gotta do this myself._ With a nod, he grabbed one of the Pokéballs at his belt and tossed it out. 

"Go, Marril!" 

"Mar!" the little water Pokémon squeaked, seeming happy to be out of it's ball. Since Myrea had bought a Pokéball for it, James had decided to keep it in only for important battles, otherwise he normally let it ride on his shoulder when they traveled. 

"That's a nice-looking Marril," Flint commented approvingly, "but we'll see if it's any match for Graveler! Go!" 

James tried to keep his jaw from dropping in shock, but failed. _Graveler_? Myrea had only said he had an Onix! He dared to look back over at her, and this time she had her arms folded and was still glaring. James recognized that look, and whenever a girl used it on him he knew that he'd better do something soon to change it. He put the surprise he felt out of his mind as quickly as he could. 

"Begin!" Flint suddenly called out, raising a hand in the air. 

"Okay, Marril, give it your Water Gun to slow it down!" 

"Rock Throw, Graveler!" 

The two commands were nearly simultaneous, but Marril reacted a little slower than Graveler, and then was too distracted by dodging the rocks Graveler was hurling at it to use the Water Gun. James was momentarily dismayed, but soon had an inspiration. "Marril, try using your Agility to dodge the rocks! Then use the Water Gun in between!" 

Marril was quick to comply with this, and where before it had barely been able to escape the rocks, it now evaded impact with ease, blasting a spray of water after every rock at the Graveler, which was weakened a bit by every blast. 

"Rush at it and Tackle it, Graveler!" 

But Marril easily escaped this move, and was now behind the rocky Pokémon; when James suggested it try a Tackle of it's own, the much smaller Pokémon was able to knock it's water-weakened foe to the ground easily, where it lay moving feebly. 

"That's enough. Marril is the winner!" Flint announced, calling back his own Pokémon. James called Marril back with a feeling close to elation. If that was all there was... 

"For the second round, I choose Onix!" Flint was saying as he tossed out a second ball. This time, James was only slightly less surprised. Myrea had said there was an Onix, but not a Graveler - it made sense that Flint should be using the Onix now. Marril was probably too tired from the last battle, and Weezing didn't do too well against rock types. That... left... 

James risked a final look at Myrea; _now_ she was leaning over the sideline railing and glaring. He swallowed hard and grabbed Victreebel's Pokéball. 

"Go, Victreebel!" With that all too familiar scream, the grass Pokémon appeared. It was facing James, and he could swear it was staring at him, just waiting for the right moment to jump at him. They had worked at training it... but it still wasn't as obedient as it should be. 

"Begin!" Flint yelled for the second time, and James knew it was now or never. "G... go! Use your Razor Leaf!" But Victreebel was still staring at him. He hoped his knees hadn't started shaking. 

"Onix, Bind it!" he heard Flint call, and as the Onix slithered forward, it's rocky body rumbling across the gym floor, James felt that feeling of impending doom creeping up on him. Yet when Onix had Victreebel wrapped up tight, he remembered a situation in his past very similar to this. 

"Quick, use Sleep Powder!" 

Instantly, his Pokémon released hundreds of tiny sparkling particles; it had actually done what he wanted, and without trying to eat him first. He was almost too scared to believe it until Flint pronounced his own Pokémon unable to battle, and Victreebel the winner. Even then, he had a hard time believing it when, after he had called Victreebel back, Flint walked forward to give him his badge. He stared down at it, watching the way the overhead lights glinted off it. 

"Good job, James. You're quite a Pokémon trainer," Flint smiled, clapping him on the shoulder before walking around to meet his clamoring children. Flint was apparently a man of few words, but he had gotten his point across. James was still staring at the badge on his palm. 

But before too long, he was nearly knocked over when Myrea came running up to hug him fiercely, laughing ecstatically. "James, you did it! That was so great! I told you so, I knew you could do it!" James listened to her rave, a slow smile spreading across his face. 

He had done it. He had actually won. 

***** 

"I never would have thought... with only two weeks' training..." 

"Well, that just shows you what you can do. It's a lot more than you think," Myrea chided her new friend lightly, unable to keep a smile from her face as she did so. He seemed dazed still, or maybe awestruck would be a better word, that he had won. Either he was always like this when he accomplished something, or he was far more accustomed to losing than she had previously thought. Whatever it was, he still hadn't told her much about himself personally, so she really didn't know. On the other hand, it wasn't as though she had told him much, either. But she could hardly do it now, while they were walking around Pewter to take in some of the sights. 

James had seemed eager to get on with training and heading toward the next gym, but Myrea had insisted that he rest and relax for at least a day first. He had agreed, although reluctantly, but seemed to be enjoying himself now. When he wasn't talking about training, that is. 

"Just relax now," she continued. "We can worry about all that other stuff later, but for now... Oh! Look at that! Isn't it cute?" 

James blinked and looked all around for something "cute", but apparently he missed it. "What? What's cute?" He looked completely perplexed. Myrea giggled. 

"That," she said, pointing. "That" was a little outdoor café, a small but nice-looking place with table decorated with all sorts of flowers outside a tiny kitchen. There were a few people scattered here and there, but otherwise it wasn't too busy. 

"Cute...?" James repeated in puzzlement. 

"Yes. Cute," Myrea grinned. "Let's go eat there, I've always wanted to eat at a café with a handsome man... how dreamy..." James seemed to be dumbfounded again, so Myrea simply hooked an arm through his, tugging him along. "C'mon! I know you're hungry, and this will be fun." 

And so, several minutes later, they were seated at one of the tables, waiting for a menu. Giggling at James again was becoming difficult for Myrea, since he wasn't looking too comfortable; he didn't seem to know whether to put his elbows on the table or not. She studied him as he sat there fidgeting, her brother's clothes still looking a little too big on him, and decided right then and there that he was absolutely the most adorable guy in existence, and even if his heart might belong to someone else, for now he was hers. That thought made her smile. 

"How slow can you be for a place with not much business?" she heard him mumble suddenly. He was staring at the greenery at the center of the table as though about to eat it. She _had_ to laugh this time. 

"Don't worry, the waitress is coming right now," she reassured him. "I didn't know you were _that_ hungry." 

"Me neither," he shrugged. 

Later, as she was poring over her own menu, she noticed him looking nervously over the top of his. "What should I order...? I don't exactly have any money, you know." 

"Will you stop worrying about it? I'm paying, since you did so great at your first gym, so just order anything you want." He still seemed uncertain, but did as she said. 

And once their orders were taken, he _still_ looked uncomfortable. Myrea had no idea what was wrong, so she thought she'd try starting a conversation to lighten up his mood. "So, what did you think of Flint's Pokémon?" 

That topic might have worked a little too well. "That's right! Where did you get off telling me that he only had an Onix? Didn't you know about the Graveler?" 

James sounded faintly angry, but Myrea didn't let him know she thought he was. "Well, yes. And I did it to teach you a lesson. Firstly, you were more confident when I told you there was only an Onix. I've seen how nervous you get about multiple opponents. And second, a trainer has to deal with a lot of surprises and learn to adapt to them. You did fine, didn't you?" 

"I guess, but--" 

"But nothing! You did great... and I'm your coach, so what I say, goes," she added with a determined nod. 

"Since when were you--" 

"Since I started training with you two weeks ago. And if you have a problem with that, maybe I should teach you a more personal lesson soon," she snapped. The way his mouth kept opening and closing reminded Myrea very much of a Magikarp. She lowered her head down farther so she could look up at him, then smiled. "That face is really cute." 

He closed his mouth quickly and sat up straight. "You're crazy," he stated weakly. Myrea sat up as well, her smile growing bigger. 

"So I'm told." James shook his head, but now he was smiling, too. _Another job well done_, she thought to herself. "Okay, back to the original topic." 

"We _had_ an original topic?" 

"Hush. I think your Marril, for one, did excellent. Your idea really worked well." 

"Only because you helped teach it Agility." 

"Hey, I can't take all the credit. Your strategy was good... but what happened to my "defense, then offense" speech? Or did that one just go in one ear and out the other?" 

He seemed to sense that she was teasing, and he grinned sheepishly. "Oh, well... strategy just kind of left my mind once the battle started... then it was pretty much instinct that took over." 

"I see... well, instinct is good, but it won't work _all_ the time. That's when you use the strategy. Oh, and what about Victreebel? Weren't you proud when it didn't try to eat you?" 

"Yeah. But it was _thinking_ about it, and that was the problem," he sighed. 

"We'll work with it more, it'll come around." 

"I suppose... but what's all this Pokémon talk about? Didn't you say I was supposed to be 'relaxing'?" 

Her eyes lit up wickedly. "Oh... I see, yes. Of course. So let's talk about something else. Like... oh... you," she grinned, leaning over the table at him. 

"Um... about me?" 

"Yes... you. Like... let's see... what kind of girls do you like? Well, you like your partner, right? The red-haired girl? What's she like? Did she give you that bracelet?" Myrea had always been dying to ask James about the bracelet, which she had noticed but said nothing about back when she had first found him. Right now he was obviously flustered by all her sudden questions, so she sat back to wait and to give him a little time to think. But he was doing that Magikarp thing again. "You don't have to answer all that at once. Start with the first." 

"I guess I... I don't know. I never gave it much thought." 

"Then tell me about that girl. What is _she_ like, and then maybe that will answer the first question, too." It was silent for a long time as he considered this. 

"Jessie is... she's strong... tough. She's a very determined person... knows what she wants. I'm sure she could be totally independent, but... she's been with me for a long time now. Seems like she was always there..." Myrea watched as his eyes seemed to focus on something only visible to him, his expression somber. Whatever else that girl was to him, it was plain that he does care about her. Apparently a lot. 

"I see... and the bracelet?" 

"No... She didn't give it to me. It's not really a sentimental gift or anything. I just... have to wear it." It didn't sound as though that was all of the truth, but Myrea could sense that her new companion didn't want to say anything further on the matter, so she didn't push it. 

"Thanks for telling me those things. It helps me to get to know you better, you know?" She smiled at him gently. 

"So, when do I get to ask about you?" he said next, his expression lightening somewhat. 

"Soon. You can ask me again soon, and I'll tell you everything you want to know. But for now, let's eat." She pointed at the approaching waitress, and his expression brightened even more. 

"Great. I was about to start eating the stupid plants," he joked with a lopsided smile. Myrea just laughed. 

Soon they were finally eating, and Myrea had James laughing in turn over a variety of strange subjects. It felt good to make him laugh, and he needed to be encouraged and happy. She realized that now. Just to take his mind off this "Jessie", at least for a little while. She was beginning to see that _she_ might be the reason he sometimes looked so uncomfortable and sad... 

***** 

It was much later, after Myrea was already asleep, that James remembered he was going to ask her some questions. 

_God, James. You know... maybe she planned it that way. Distract you until when you _do_ remember, it's too late._ No.... that couldn't be it. 

He rolled over in his sleeping bag so he could look at her. She was resting peacefully enough, breathing deeply in a way that made him completely sure she was asleep, a Slowpoke on either side of her. Once she had claimed that they protected her from any danger. James smiled. The amount of trust she had placed in those slow-moving pink Pokémon was sometimes amazing. 

"And maybe someday she'll trust me enough to tell me things," he mumbled to himself as he moved onto his back to look at the night sky. Maybe he had only known her for two weeks... but he already cared about her. She was showing him a great kindness, one he had never thought to see from anyone... except maybe Jessie and Meowth. But would _they_ have been willing to help him the way Myrea had, had the circumstances been reversed? That thought troubled him, so he put it aside, instead focusing a bit on Jessie's emotions. 

They were calm, very even and unwavering; James had learned enough by now to tell that this meant she was asleep. Closing his eyes, he let that calmness flow through him, leaving him with a feeling of peace, which was about the only way he could get to sleep nowadays... 

When he awoke, Yume was there. 

This time, there was no signal, no feeling of an unseen presence... she was just there. Which naturally made him cry out in surprise. A quick glance at Myrea, however, showed that she still slept. In fact, it was probably just that she would _not_ wake up, like what had happened the first time with Jessie and Meowth. He stared at Yume as she floated there, several hours seeming to pass before he could speak. 

"You... you _did_ come back..." 

"Of course," she smiled gently. "Did you think I was just a dream before?" 

"No... but I was wondering if you'd come back like you said... What is it that you... want?" He didn't think that sounded like a good thing to ask, but he couldn't think of anything else. 

Yume shook her head slightly. "I do not require anything of you. I merely wished to tell you that you are on the right path. You are doing wonderfully at this point; your bracelet has only been activated once. And your recent success is most admirable." 

James nodded, glad she was pleased. "Can I... ask you something?" 

"Yes." 

"It's about her." He hesitantly pointed a finger in Myrea's direction. "Did you have anything to do with..." 

"The only influence I have had on her was when she 'happened' to find you after you were attacked by the Beedrill. Because of her good heart, she has stayed with you and helped you greatly since then. All of that was not my doing." 

"And the Marril?" he continued on a hunch. 

"Yes. I was the one who sent it to you." 

"Yeah... I thought so. Not many Marril in Viridian Forest, after all. Oh... there's one more thing." Here he paused, sighing heavily. "This link between Jessie and me... could you..." 

"It cannot be taken away. I am sorry, but you must know how far away she is, so you will not have to risk encountering her by chance." 

"But the emotions..." 

"It cannot be separated." 

It had been worth a try, but... he wasn't altogether sure he really wanted the link gone, anyway. Yume must have noticed his downcast expression, for her own softened in sympathy. 

"Do not worry. Someday, she will understand." Then she was gone. James lay back down, shivering as though the air held a sudden chill. 

He hoped she _would_ understand.


	5. Another Badge

Wish: Chapter Five - Another Badge

Notes: In this chapter, James goes on a side quest for... socks. o_O And, meet the three Sensational Sisters! (Again! :P) Will this gym battle be easier or harder than James thought? I, like, didn't have a clue what the other 2 sisters' names were, so I had to invent them. Heheh... Or am I actually right? Anyone know their names? Tell me. -_- 

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters... no, I don't. -_- 

***** 

"So, tell me again: What are some good strategies for defeating water Pokémon? ....James, I'm waiting here. James!" 

"Ouch! Cut that out! Do you have to be so mean?" James whined defensively, sitting up straight and gingerly rubbing his head where whatever Myrea had thrown had hit him. Sitting on the hard ground outside of a city, where more comfortable seating could probably be found, and going over battle strategies _again_ when they had been going over them all week anyway was not exactly his idea of a wonderful time. 

But Myrea had insisted on drilling him repeatedly over the same things, and usually ended up throwing something or other at him when his attention wandered. Unlike Jessie, when Myrea got mad she had a tendency to throw anything close at hand rather than actually physically hitting him. But it wasn't as though he preferred one way of relieving aggression over another. 

He looked about for what could have hit him, his eyes finally landing on his shoe, which now lay beside him. And sure enough, glancing at his foot showed him that he indeed had only one shoe on. "Hey... how did you..." 

"Hmph. If you were so spaced out that you didn't even feel me take it off, you definitely deserved it. Why can't you pay attention anymore?" She sounded mad. James hated it when she sounded that way. 

"Oh. I was... just thinking... and I guess I'm just tired of thinking about Pokémon battles right now. But go ahead and ask the question again. Go on," he finished quickly, hoping to appease her. 

Now she was staring at his foot, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "You know, I would... but that hole in your sock is bothering me." 

James blinked at this statement, then swung his gaze down his big toe, which _was_ sticking quite plainly out of it's sock. "Yeah... it's a hole. What's the big deal?" 

"You need new socks." 

"I _do_ have more than one pair." 

"But they _all_ have holes." 

"Have you been going through my clothes again..." 

"Most of them belonged to my brother, remember, so I have a right." Myrea's smile had grown slowly through this whole exchange, indicating that she had returned to a better mood. 

"Well, yeah... I guess that's true," James admitted, trying hard to keep the relief out of his voice. After all, the last thing he needed right now was the _other_ shoe thrown at his head. "But I don't think you should have to go out and buy them for me." 

The way she leaned back on her hands and smiled lazily at him made James distinctly uncomfortable. "Well, of course not. I can't do _everything_ for you... and you said you wanted to get your mind off training for awhile. Tell you what, if you can go into Cerulean City and get yourself a new pair of socks without me giving you any money, I won't make you answer any more questions for the rest of the day. Deal?" 

James just stared. He hadn't been expecting this; what he had been expecting was for her to scold him for thinking that he didn't ever need any help, then finally go into town with him and help him out. But this... this was sneaky. This was underhanded. This was... was... 

"You're very unpredictable, you know that?" 

"I could build my fame on it," she answered with a grin. "So is it a deal or not?" 

"I guess..." 

"Good! Now you better get started, it's already three o'clock as it is. I just wonder if you can actually do it..." Her doubting expression and tone of voice were enough to make him get to his feet, resolving to do his best to prove her wrong. After taking a few steps, however, he turned back sheepishly. 

"Um... but maybe I'll put my other shoe on, first." He had the uncomfortable feeling that she was holding in her laughter as he finally managed to get his shoe on his foot and started walking toward the city. Eventually, he just broke into a run in his haste to get there, embarrassment coloring his face bright red. 

Myrea waited until she was certain he was out of earshot before she fell over on the ground laughing. This was just going to be too good... 

***** 

_And just how the heck am I supposed to get money?_ James thought to himself crossly as he surveyed the length of only one of Cerulean's many streets. _Steal it_, his mind told him as if it was a joke; the slight tingle of pain that shot up his left wrist at even the idea assured him that was definitely not an option. Besides that, he didn't even feel like stealing _anything_ anymore. 

_God, James, you've gone crazy. At least, Jessie and Meowth would think so._ The thought slowed him down a little, but he quickly pushed it back down. He needed to concentrate on this now. 

Just the prospect of not having to think about training for the rest of the day was enough motivation. It wasn't as though he didn't feel like getting one step closer to his goal, but Myrea had really been pushing him hard for the past week. He wondered why that was. 

Forgetting all that for the moment, he ran his eyes over the shops lining the street. Maybe one of them could use an hour or two of help in exchange for a little money. Singling out a clothing store as an obvious first choice, he hesitantly pushed the door open and entered. 

There wasn't anyone there except for a young black-haired girl behind the counter, who smiled at him warmly. "Well, now... it's not too often that many guys come in here. Are you looking for something for your girlfriend? Or your... wife?" 

That was when he realized it was a _female_ clothing store, and felt appropriately embarrassed. "No, I just... I wanted to know if you... that is... if you needed..." he began to stutter. 

"No. You know, this is the third time today I've had someone come in and ask if I need help! I'm responsible and I know how to run this place myself even if I _do_ look young and inexperienced! I have half a mind to..." 

James let her continue to ramble as he backed slowly toward the door, trying to smile in what he hoped was a soothing way. "Sorry to... to bother you, Miss..." he managed to get out before he pulled the door open and escaped. With a heavy sigh, he leaned up against the side of the shop next to the door, trying to figure out what to do next. The only thing he could think of was to try a few more places. 

Unable to keep from sighing again, he was about to walk further down the street when a sudden motion in the corner of his eyes caused him to stop and look. In the space between the clothing store and the building beside it, he could see what looked like a white tail flopping up and down. Out of curiosity, he went further over to see what it was attached to. 

"Seeeel," the little white Pokémon moaned mournfully. James blinked. 

"A lost Seel?" he wondered aloud to himself. "How odd." But when he bent down to extend a hand toward it, it backed up and moved it's head from side to side. 

"Seel!" 

"Hm. Maybe it's just waiting for someone." Shrugging, James left it there to continue his mission. 

An hour later, however, he felt like he had covered half the city, and _no one_ wanted an hour or two of help. And most of them had been fairly rude about it, as well. "What's wrong with these people, anyway?" he muttered angrily, folding his arms and all but glaring at the passersby in his bad mood. 

That was when he noticed the Seel out in the middle of the road, plainly trying to flop it's way over to him. "Seel?" it called out. "Seel!" 

Without thinking, James ran out into the road to scoop it into his arms, then dashed back to the sidewalk in time to avoid the oncoming traffic. "Seel?" the Pokémon whimpered to him. 

"Hey... you shouldn't go out into the street like that. Are you lost, little guy? Can't find your owner?" The Seel only nuzzled it's head up against his chest, and he patted it carefully to keep from poking himself on it's horn. "You weren't following me, were you?" 

"Seel! Seel!" It seemed to say that it had been. James nodded. 

"So you want me to help you find your owner?" 

"Seeeeel!" 

"Alright, okay!" James laughed as it squirmed about wildly. "We'll keep walking and see what we find." 

And after _another_ half hour of walking and finding nothing, James had little hope left that he would _ever_ find the owner. He was tired of walking and the Seel was feeling heavier by the minute. Still, he continued on, mostly because he wouldn't have felt right about leaving it on it's own again. 

"We've been on this street already," he groaned as he drew up to the corner and peered down it. There was only one girl standing on the street now, a girl with long blonde hair who was staring at something in one of the shop windows. James couldn't see anything special about her from this angle, but apparently the Seel did. 

"Seeeel! Seel!" 

"Oh, we found her, huh?" James asked it with a smile as he crossed the street and headed over to talk to the girl. His approach was unheeded until he actually started speaking to her. "Excuse me, but did you lose a..." He trailed off as she turned to look at him. Now he recognized her, too - she was one of the gym leaders that he'd tried to steal from as a part of Team Rocket so long ago. Hopefully so long ago that she didn't remember him. 

"Oh!" the girl squealed when she saw the Seel, evidently not even noticing James' sudden silence. "Seel, it's you! I looked for you everywhere, why didn't you stay where I told you?" 

"Seeeel!" was it's only response before it jumped - if a Seel could actually be said to "jump" - into the girl's arms. 

"Oh Seel, I'm, like... sorry! Thanks for finding it," she added next, smiling at James. "I just wanted to go shopping this afternoon, ya know, and Seel wanted to come with me. I just _had_ to go into the beauty shop to get my hair done too, so I, like, left Seel outside and told it to stay! And when I came out I was like, oh my god, it's gone! But you found it, so everything's totally okay now!" 

James' brain whirled as he tried to sort out everything she'd said in that funny way she talked, but he soon gave up and just nodded as though he understood everything completely. "Oh, this is just so awesome!" she continued babbling at him. "But tell me, is there anything I can do to repay you, like, anything at all? 'Cause I think you deserve something for finding Seel for me!" 

James smiled to himself slowly. "As a matter of fact, there is something..." 

***** 

Myrea lay flat on her back on the ground, giggling uncontrollably as two pink tongues tickled her face. "Okay! Okay! That's enough! I'll get you something to eat!" she laughed, reaching her hands up to push Lemon and Lime's broad noses away from her. "I try to sit back and relax, and you two pester me." She made this part sound like she was scolding, but she couldn't keep the smile from her face. 

As she got up to rummage through her bag for the food, her thoughts returned to James again. Try as she might, that was where her thoughts usually went whether she wanted them to or not. She hoped he was okay out there, getting his... socks. This produced another laugh she couldn't hold back. 

Watching her Slowpoke eat, with James' Marril, having already been fed, sitting quietly beside her, she hoped he would return soon. It was pretty lonely without him around, even with the Pokémon. And it had been three hours since he'd left. 

So she was extremely happy to see him finally appear over the top of the hill outside the city, and she nearly stood up to wave at him before she noticed something odd. Then she couldn't do anything but stare. 

His face was the same, yet almost everything else about him seemed different. He was wearing clothes she had never seen before - a pair of dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved green shirt that hung halfway to his knees and was cut open enough to show a black shirt underneath. And he had somehow managed to pull his bluish hair back into a small ponytail, though a lot of strands still fell loose around his face. Her brother's blue and white tennis shoes were still on his feet though, and he carried the rest of the clothes he had been wearing before under one arm. It felt like she had stared at him forever before he was finally sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of her. 

"What's the matter with you?" he asked teasingly as the Pokémon crowded around the two of them. "Don't you remember me?" 

"How did you... where did you..." He just smiled, then told her a very interesting story that answered all of her questions. 

"...and so, Daisy was so happy to get Seel back that she said she would give me anything I wanted. I said I thought I needed a new image, and that was enough to get her going. She practically went crazy over this little... 'makeover'. So, what do you think?" 

"You look... great," she answered weakly. What she really wanted to say was "handsome", but for some reason she couldn't. A very strange thing. 

"And here's the best part," he continued while he pried off his shoes. 

Myrea grinned, suddenly feeling more like her old self. "Yep, no holes. James... you're amazing. Did you know that?" 

He leaned closer to her. "I've always known that," he affirmed with a grin of his own. 

"You're also humble," she joked, standing up. "Well, let's see about eating some supper, then we can go sightseeing or something, since you've _more_ than earned the right not to talk about training for the rest of the day. And tomorrow morning we'll head over to the gym." 

"The gym...?" he repeated slowly, looking up at her with an earnest expression. "Do you think I'm ready for that?" 

"Oh, I think so..." 

***** 

"The Cascade Badge.." James mumbled to no one in particular as he slumped against the glass of the aquarium, his nose pressed to it. "I feel sick..." 

"Stop that." Myrea's voice sounded right in his ear, but it was probably because she had leaned so close to him. "You were all ready for this last night. What happened?" 

"I don't know... but I feel sick." 

"Well, okay. But just try to relax and enjoy the aquariums for now. You've got five minutes left. Look at that Goldeen. It's so pretty, it's the biggest one I've ever seen..." 

James let the sound of her voice drown in the rest of his thoughts. It was true that he _did_ remember feeling this same way the last time he had competed for a gym badge... but it had gone away when he was actually out in the ring and was thinking of doing his best for Jessie and Meowth. But until that time, the waiting was hard. 

"James! Pleeeease don't space out on me now! It's time to go!" Myrea's voice came back up again, and he turned to look down at her anxious face, purple eyes wide with concern. Reflexively, he brushed a strand of green hair away from her glasses, but her gaze didn't waver. Looking at her, he realized that maybe he was doing this for her now almost as much as for the others, and he managed to calm his expression and to look more relaxed. 

"Alright. I'm ready, let's go." Myrea merely gave him a relieved smile, then the pair walked on in silence. 

It didn't take long to reach the main gym area. There was the huge pool for the gym battles, and there was another, smaller pool that must have been built only recently; one of the trio of gym leaders appeared to be teaching about water Pokémon to a few trainers there. The two other leaders were conversing at the far end of the giant pool - one of them was Daisy. The whole room echoed in the cavernous way that most indoor pools seemed to. 

James swallowed hard and looked over at Myrea, who looked right back. "You're on your own now," she smiled. "Good luck." That was all she said before she went over to sit in the bleachers, leaving James standing alone and feeling rather nervous. Fortunately or not, he wasn't alone for long. 

"Oh, James! You're finally here!" Daisy called over to him, waving frantically. She practically ran over to join him as the sister she had been talking to followed more slowly. "I'm so glad you're here! This is gonna be, like, the most totally awesome match because I'm sure you're a great Pokémon trainer! Oh yeah, I guess I should introduce you to my sister, Violet," she added a bit reluctantly at the end. 

"Gee, what a great introduction," the purple-haired girl sighed, extending a hand for James to shake. "Daisy has been, like, so eager for you to get here that her manners have basically gone down the drain." James hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise over Daisy, but he was able to nod and politely greet Violet now. Then the final "Sensational Sister" appeared, her class having dissolved to sit in the bleachers and watch. James wasn't sure he was comfortable with so many people watching him right now, but he figured he had to get used to it if he ever wanted to be relaxed in the Pokémon League. The amount of people here would be very small if compared to that major event. 

"Hey, no fair hogging the cute trainers," the third sister pouted at the other two. 

"Oh, give it a rest, Rose. We, like, owe this one a lot since he found our poor lost Seel," Daisy reminded. 

"I suppose you're right," Rose replied thoughtfully. "And it's not, like, every day you have your Seel rescued by a totally cute trainer." They all broke into giggles over this, and James fervently hoped that Myrea couldn't hear them or see his red face. She would tease him to no end if she had. 

"But seriously," Violet began once they had all calmed down, "thanks. Seel is really young and doesn't have much experience, since we only got it after our old Seel evolved into Dewgong. It's, like, more of a pet around here than a Pokémon for battling." 

James nodded. "I see." 

"Yeah," Rose chimed in, "and since she met you first, Daisy wants to be the one to battle you. Which I'm not sure is really, like, fair, but we agreed to it, if only to shut her up." Daisy glared indignantly at her two sisters while they hid smiles behind their hands; James had a hard time containing his amusement, as well. The trio was silly - there was no question of that - but did that mean winning this badge would be easy? He supposed he would find out soon enough. 

Despite the girls' giggling, it didn't take long to set up for the match, Daisy opposite him on her own floating platform, while Violet and Rose sat out in the audience. James wasn't too sure he trusted this surface, and it was certainly disconcerting to be surrounded by water during a Pokémon battle, but he kept Myrea's tips in mind. Maybe going over them so much hadn't been such a bad idea after all. He also kept Jessie fixed in his mind, and this all seemed worthwhile, at least - the nervous, sick feelings disappeared. 

"Okay!" Daisy finally called out to him across the water. Her voice naturally echoed quite loudly across the huge room. "This battle for the Cascade Badge will now begin! Both sides will use two Pokémon each! Are you ready?" 

James nodded, hoping he really was. Daisy held up her first Pokéball, but lowered her voice to say something else to him before she tossed it out. "And just because you helped me out, don't think I'll go easy on you!" 

He grinned at her. "I wouldn't have it any other way." 

"Right. Now go, Goldeen!" 

A Goldeen? This might be _too_ easy. "Marril!" 

This first battle _was_ easy, as James had expected. Marril was surprisingly agile in the water, and could easily dodge the other Pokémon's attacks. The Goldeen became frustrated quickly, and wasn't following orders well enough, and a few minutes later, Marril claimed the victory with a final underwater Tackle. It all seemed like it should be downhill from that moment. That was when Daisy called out Dewgong. 

James had known it would come down to this, but he still was hesitant to use Victreebel. Nevertheless, there was not much other choice. Suddenly he wished that he had tried to capture more Pokémon. Victreebel had shown vast improvement lately, but... being on the wrong end of it's attacks one time too many was enough to keep him more than wary of using it. 

_No choice. You don't have a choice, so just do it._ Carefully keeping his eyes from wandering over to Myrea for guidance, he called it out, praying for a miracle. What he got was close enough to being one. 

Victreebel didn't attack him, but the attacks it used against it's opponent seemed unfocused, and it kept looking back at James as though debating whether or not to come after _him_ instead. Up until that moment, he had been working against the Dewgong with long range attacks, but when James faltered and couldn't come up with another command for some time, Victreebel did something rather unexpected. It jumped into the water. 

Horrified, James peered over the edge of his platform, afraid to see if it was sinking to the bottom or not. But it was _swimming_, and quite well, at that. It might not be as graceful as Dewgong under the water, but it was holding it's own as it dodged the other's attacks. All of a sudden, an idea popped into James' head, and he decided to go for it and hope for the best. 

"Victreebel! Jump as high as you can out of the water!" To his surprise, it obeyed instantly, and the Dewgong followed as James had hoped it would. A split second later, he called out, "Now use Stun Spore!" 

His Pokémon screamed loudly as it released the paralyzing spores; this attack was much more focused than previous ones, and the Dewgong began to stiffen as it fell back toward the water, Victreebel slamming into it hard on the way down. 

"Oh! Victreebel is the winner!" Daisy squeaked hastily, diving into the water to retrieve her stunned Pokémon. The shock that came from actually winning this battle, however, didn't even register before something heavy rammed into James' back, and he toppled face-first into the pool. 

***** 

"James, are you okay?" 

He sat up on the hard gym floor, looking down at himself. He was soaking wet. Then he blinked at the faces around him: Myrea, Daisy, Violet, and Rose. "What... happened?" 

"Like, I dunno why, but your Victreebel jumped at you when the match was over. You hit your head on the bottom of the pool and you, like, passed out," Daisy told him. "Maybe it was just happy it won." 

James nodded dumbly in agreement, not knowing how else to explain _that_. Daisy put a Pokéball in his hand. "There it is. It's a good thing that your girlfriend, like, jumped in and saved you, since I was so busy with Dewgong. She's pretty fast." 

"Girlfriend?" James mumbled, looking at Myrea. She grinned hugely, then launched herself at him in a hug. _She_ was soaking wet too, he noticed. 

"Oh, I'm so glad I could save you! How could I let something like that happen to my boyfriend?" 

"Wha... what..." James began to stutter in confusion, but Myrea hushed him quietly before letting go. Not that the sisters noticed, being too busy talking. 

"It's too bad... he has a girlfriend already," Daisy sighed disconsolately. "I was hoping he could stay here and train with m... I mean, with us." 

"We know what you mean," Rose replied, after which they all laughed. 

"But it was great while it lasted, James... you're a really good trainer," Daisy smiled. She reached out to press a Cascade Badge in his palm, and he just stared at it for a time. 

"Thanks... it _was_ a lot of fun," he finally managed to say. 

"Seeel!" a voice called out. A moment later, the Pokémon ran out from around a corner of the pool and headed straight for them. "Seel! Seel!" 

"Ya know..." Daisy said slowly, "maybe Seel would like to go with James. It doesn't get much training here... and I think it would be better for it in the long run. What do you think?" 

"Seeeeeeeeeel!" It seemed to have made up it's own mind. 

So that was how James left Cerulean City: with a new Pokémon, a new badge, a new "girlfriend", and an immense headache. 

***** 

"Oh man..." James moaned to himself. "I'm starting to feel like that twerp... getting Pokémon for free..." 

"Did you just say something?" Myrea asked suddenly as she walked along beside him down the road. 

"Heh... no... just talking to myself," he answered nervously. She had already commended him on his win, but now she seemed strangely quiet. "So why did you tell them that you're my... my..." he trailed off, surprised at himself for even asking. 

"Oh. I just didn't want them pawing all over you. You're not free property, you know." James wasn't quite sure what to read from that smile on her face. So he focused on walking again. He wondered what Jessie and Meowth were doing right now. 

_I'm one step closer to you..._

***** 

"Ya know... it seems to me that I've seen him before. Didn't he, like, seem a tiny bit familiar to either of you?" Daisy asked her sisters some time later. 

"No... I don't think so." 

"You're, like... imagining things."


	6. Lonely Road

Wish: Chapter Six - Lonely Road 

Notes: In this chapter, you'll find a bit of Myrea's history, and also another example of my obsession with characters having dreams. This chapter is also about half as long as any of the others... I woulda made it longer, but I got the feeling if I kept going it would end up being _too_ long. James Eric Stuart... haha... I kill myself. :P 

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em! Nope! 

*****

"James Eric _Stuart_! I am mad at you, and I am _not_ speaking to you ever again!" 

This made him stop swinging his legs off the edge of the wall fence and bend down enough so that he could see Jessie where she rested on the ground, her arms wrapped fiercely wrapped around her legs, which she had drawn up to her chest. Her expression, what he could see of it, was lethal. 

He sighed quietly, still hunched over but now staring at the ground a few feet below his shoes as he pondered her declaration. She had done this before. "Eric" and "Stuart" weren't really his middle and last names. And he hadn't a clue where she had come up with them. But since she seemed to think that yelling at him properly meant using a full name, and since he wouldn't tell her what that was, she had supplied one of her own invention. Wondering about that wouldn't help him now, though. 

He tried to breathe silently as he thought, afraid that any noise he made might cause her to jump up and hit him, maybe somehow even knock him off his perch atop the wall; he had gone through so much trouble climbing to the top using the rocks that jutted out as handholds that going back down didn't interest him at the moment. Certainly not falling down, either. True, he was used to being knocked about, but it wasn't like he enjoyed it. 

Well, thinking definitely wasn't working. He still couldn't come up with anything he had possibly done wrong, just like always. She just seemed to get angry often, and she liked to take it out on him, even if he _had_ done nothing. At least when she said she would never speak to him again, she never meant it. All there was left to do now was wait for her to calm down. 

A few minutes passed before she spoke. Well, she didn't just speak - she stood up, glared, and pointed her little forefinger at him like a weapon. This all happened so fast that he nearly fell over backwards from sitting up too quickly. "Well?! Aren't you going to say something?" 

The fury in her voice was enough to make his knees tremble. Hopefully she wasn't noticing that now. "You said.. you said you weren't talking to me." 

The moment those words left his lips, he wished he hadn't moved them at all. She could climb a lot better than he could. In a matter of seconds, she was on the wall too, and no amount of scooting over seemed to be enough to get away. At first he thought she was going to clobber him good with her fist, but she drew back momentarily as though thinking better of it, settling instead on pinching his bare leg with those sharp fingernails she had. He winced, rubbing it when she let go, while she just stared at him for a moment. 

"You know, you're strange," she announced suddenly. It seemed that she had forgotten she was "mad" at him. "Everything about you is strange. The way you act, the way you talk, even the way you're dressed." She reached out to tug the blue material of his coat sleeve as if to emphasize that last oddity. It had seen better days, looking rather bedraggled and dirty since he had run away. How long ago was that? Three weeks? Four? He didn't know. Jessie's clothes, on the other hand, looked even worse than his. And she looked much skinnier than he did. He didn't know what to make of any of these things, either. 

"Why _are_ you so strange?" she asked him next. He tried to think of an answer. 

"I... I don't know." Hardly an intelligent response. But she just sighed, seeming to accept it as a decent answer. 

"Okay. I'm sorry I pinched you." Her short arms wrapped around him in a brief hug, so brief that he didn't have time to react to it before she was clambering back down the side of the wall, as agile as a Mankey. "Here," she said, extending a hand to him. "Let's go find something to eat." 

He stared down at her, into those blue eyes that never wavered from his face. He knew something now. She had just accepted him exactly the way he was. She wasn't going to try to change him. At least for now. But why had she apologized? That was something best left to wonder about later. Confidently, he told her he could manage to get down on his own. 

Well, at least the reason he fell wasn't because she had pushed him. 

***** 

James woke up, blinking hard in the pre-dawn light. What a very strange dream... That had happened years ago, yet the dream had been vividly accurate. 

He rolled onto his stomach, groaning. Sleeping on the hard ground, even with a sleeping bag, didn't exactly leave his back feeling the best. Not that he wasn't used to it. 

Allowing his thoughts to drift back to the dream, he smiled faintly. Yes, Jessie had accepted him what seemed like so long ago now, and even though she sometimes didn't like his traits and habits, she still accepted them as just a part of who he was. And didn't try to change that. Usually. But now he had changed... maybe in ways Jessie would no longer accept. When he saw her again, would everything be different? Or, as Yume seemed to think, would she understand? He sighed, maybe a little too loudly considering that Myrea was probably still asleep. 

"Hey, what's the matter? Stomach hurt?" 

He nearly jumped out of his sleeping bag at the sound of Myrea's voice. He looked up to see her sitting exactly where he had seen her last night, but now she was fully dressed with all of her things packed up and sitting beside her. She grinned at him, but today it seemed a little weak. Unsure of what was going on, he just shook his head, then looked to see if his own stuff had been packed as well. It hadn't. She opened her mouth to speak again, but he cut her off before she could even start. 

"Can I tell you something?" Without waiting for a reply, he launched into his full life's story, telling her everything but the tiniest details, going through his childhood, why he ran away, how he met Jessie and Meowth, joined Team Rocket, and all things in between. By the time he had finished, the sun had risen, a bright orange ball barely hovering over the rim of the earth. Myrea just stared at him for some time after, her eyes wide with amazement. 

"Wow... I never could have imagined... so much has happened in your life... and now you really want to make your friends happy. That's really something." He nodded. He had purposely left out Yume again, afraid that she wouldn't believe him. Or maybe that he wasn't supposed to tell in the first place. Gathering up his courage, he asked her the next question he had on his mind. 

"So... so why can't you tell me anything?" He had thought she might balk at this question, but she actually laughed. 

"You want to know about my past that much? Well, I'll tell you." He nodded expectantly, propping his chin on his hands and trying to look as interested as possible in case she changed her mind. She smiled at him, just watching; if he hadn't known any better, he would have thought she was adoring him. But of course not. He _was_ relieved when he finally began, though. 

The first part of her story was basic, covering what seemed like a very brief childhood. "... then, when I was five or six, my parents just... left. My grandmother always told us kids afterwards, when she was taking care of us, that they went on some kind of... "adventure" and never came back. I know I told you before that they died, but I think they're still alive. But what kind of parents are those?" 

James nodded, understanding. At least she would know that he understood now. "Then what happened?" 

"Well, my grandmother raised us until I was about fourteen. Then she passed away. We took care of ourselves, mostly, since we're still receiving money since our parents are gone... and we really have no relatives to be with. And... my brother... he was in a car accident... now it's just me and Emily. But I'm sure my little sister is doing fine without me for now. She's pretty responsible." 

"You know... compared to your life, my life isn't as bad as I thought it was. I'm sorry." 

She shook her head hard, then turned back to look at him again. "It doesn't really matter who's had the worst life. As long as we're both trying to improve it, that's what's important." 

"You're right... as usual," he sighed, realizing what he should acknowledge next. "You're leaving, aren't you? 

"James... Well, it's only for a little while. Two weeks, tops. I just have to take care of something while we're in the area, and I'll find you in Vermilion. You understand, right?" 

"Of course I do. Do whatever you need to." 

"You knew I was leaving anyway? I bet that's why you wanted to talk about all that stuff," she mused, mostly to herself. 

"Well... yeah," he admitted uncertainly. 

"Oh, but before i go, I've left enough food and other things for you to last at least two weeks, and I want you to promise to take care of yourself, don't get sick or hurt or anything, train hard, and maybe have a new badge to show me when I get back, hmm?" 

"I... yeah," he replied slowly. She was talking too fast again. 

"Okay. One more thing." She stood up, adopting a fierce expression, leaning forward over him with her hands on her hips. "And if you think for a minute that you can slack off because I'm not around and I won't find out, you'd better think again or I'm going to personally make sure you don't sleep for a _week_ while you're making up the time! How clear is _that_?" 

"C... crystal," he stuttered, wondering if she meant that. But she smiled then, and blew him a kiss before she started walking away. 

"Bye... see you soon! Don't forget anything now!" 

James watched her go. With a threat like that, how _could_ he forget? 

***** 

The next week was slow. Very slow. The days crawled by, and each day James traveled bit by bit to Vermilion City, training as hard as he could along the way. It was very lonely without Myrea around, and this caused him to think more often of Jessie, which depressed him to no end, since she constantly seemed to be in a foul mood. The mood transferred to him sometimes, but he tried to push it away for the sake of the Pokémon. 

Marril usually either rode on his shoulder or hopped along beside him while they traveled, and he often called out Weezing and let it float beside him for a while, talking to it as though it was a person. After all, Weezing was a very old friend to him, and he supposed that it might miss Jessie and Meowth, or maybe even Arbok. The two had fought side by side for so long, even evolved together. James knew what it was like to miss someone so badly, so he made sure to take extra care of Weezing. He hadn't a clue what Victreebel thought about, but his new Seel seemed to love the training he gave it. At least Victreebel hadn't given him any problems since the pool incident. 

Early on in the week he managed, with some difficulty, to catch a Dugtrio with Marril's help. And by the end of the week he had arrived in Vermilion City, challenged for and won the Thunder Badge. It wasn't so hard, really. He used Dugtrio to combat Surge's lone Raichu, and won surprisingly fast. The only thing that seemed to be wrong was that Myrea wasn't around to congratulate him. Yet another step toward his goal, maybe, but he felt that she was deeply involved in that goal, now. He was extremely grateful, however, to leave the Vermilion Gym; if Surge called him "pretty boy" one more time, James probably would have decked him. Well, maybe. If he had been a little bigger and stronger, sure. 

Later that evening, he sat cross-legged on the ground beneath the tree he had chosen to spend the night under, just outside Vermilion. Halfheartedly, he stirred the three shiny badges on his palm with a forefinger; they glimmered in the fading light, but it didn't make him happy just looking at them. He was feeling rather desperate for human company. As far as he could tell, Jessie was asleep, although it didn't matter because he couldn't see her now anyway. Sighing, he stuffed the badges back in his pocket, where he usually kept them. He had no real desire to flaunt them to anyone. 

_God, James. You _are_ insane. Next thing you know, you'll be shaving your head bald and dressing like your father._

"Ha... how amusing," he groaned aloud. He felt tired. The sun hadn't even set yet, but he was tired. So he went ahead and lay down without unpacking anything, Marril curling up against his stomach, and soon fell asleep. 

He didn't even awaken when the shadow of a person fell over him.


	7. (Un)innocence of Youth

Wish: Chapter Seven - (Un)innocence of Youth 

Notes: James makes a new friend, as well as a new temporary traveling companion in this chapter. It might just be me, but these intros just seem to be getting shorter and shorter... :P 

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Isn't it obvious? 

***** 

"Heyyy! Hey you! Wake up! Wake up, wake up!" 

James groaned and rolled over. "Leave me alone, Marril. I'm trying to sleep." Wait a minute. Marril didn't _talk_. 

With a start, he opened his eyes and sat up quickly to see a boy staring at him with great curiosity. For a minute, James could have swore it was one the twerps, the way the kid was wearing a Pokémon League hat and all, but his hair, although black, stuck out from under the hat in much smaller spikes, and his eyes were blue. He also had a very disheveled appearance, with the way he wore the hat crooked, to the way his purple shirt was too big for him and his jeans too tight. His shoes didn't even match. Did anyone _dress_ this kid? 

All this flashed through James mind in only a few seconds before he blurted out, "Who are you?" 

"Huh. I could ask you the same question," the boy tossed back folding his arms and giving James an impertinent grin. James lifted an eyebrow. So, the kid had an attitude. Great. 

"I'm James," he answered simply, figuring it would be best to just play along. 

"James, huh?" the boy repeated, walking around him in circles. "James? I'd rather call ya Jim." 

"Oh... um... if you like." James didn't know what was going on, but this kid had his tongue tied up in knots for the moment. Maybe it was the way he kept staring, with those blue eyes that seemed to know entirely too much for such a young person. 

It was then that he realized that his surroundings were completely unfamiliar. Marril was still beside him, huddling close as it sometimes seemed shy around strangers, but instead of the single tree he had been resting under, there were quite a few trees around him now, more like a forest. And in the center of a clearing a little ways to his left, there was an old, rundown-looking cottage that looked like it had only one or two rooms, and somehow seemed vaguely familiar to him. In his shock, James jumped to his feet to gape around him in dismay. 

"What the... where am I?" 

"So many questions," the boy sighed, his expression looking very put-upon. Then he grinned again and unfolded his arms to put his little hands on his hips. "You, Jim, were on the edge of my property. And trespassers aren't allowed here!" he intoned sternly, wagging a finger at the offender. 

"Now look here, kid," James began angrily in spite of himself. "I've had just about enough of this, and I have half a mind to--" 

"Wh... what are you going to do to me?" the boy blinked in what appeared to be fright. 

"Oh, never mind," James sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "Just tell me who you are and how I got here, okay? Please?" 

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it? If you'd have asked me nicely in the first place, I would've told you." He didn't seem so frightened anymore. James felt a slight twinge of irritation, but pushed it aside. Had _he_ been such a brat as a kid? Thinking about it made his head hurt. 

"The name's Jon," the boy announced proudly, hooking a thumb back at himself. "I'm sure you're pleased to meet me." 

James smiled sardonically before replying. "Jon? I'd rather call you Jonny." 

"Hey! You trying to beat me at my own game? Well, unless you wanna be called 'Jimmy Boy', you'd better call me Jon!" 

James tried very hard not to laugh at the face this "Jon" was making. "Alright, alright. Jon. Go on." 

With a last suspicious glance, the boy continued. "Like I said, you were on the edge of my property. Me and Riza thought it would be a good idea to bring you back to the base for questioning. Boy, are you ever a heavy sleeper." 

Ignoring that last comment, James spoke up with another question. "Riza? Is that your sister or somebody?" 

"No! Riza's my Charizard!" Jon yelped indignantly, as though that should have been obvious. 

"Uhh... Charizard?" 

"Yeah! She's in here now!" the boy answered, holding up a Pokéball he hadn't had a minute ago. James wasn't quite sure where he had been hiding it. "She's the only Pokémon I have, but she's the best there ever was!" 

"I see... and you got me here... by..." 

"Riza picked you up and carried you here on her back." 

"Oh... I see..." Riding on the back of a Charizard? While sleeping? It all sounded very dangerous to James, but Jon was staring at him again. 

"Are you okay, Jim? You're not gonna throw up, are ya? I'd rather ya didn't throw up on my grass." 

"Uh... no, I won't," James replied shakily. "So... where is your family? Do you live out here?" 

"What, are you crazy? I don't _have_ a family." 

"Are you sure? Everyone has a family." 

"Not me! I don't need a family! People are stupid. I live out here with Riza most of the time. Everyone understands." 

"And you're... how old?" 

"Nine. And I can take care of myself! I don't need anyone... well, I gotta go back sometimes. For school and junk like that. But it's summertime! I haven't been back home in a month, Riza's really good at finding food for us. Isn't that great?" 

James just nodded to make the kid happy, but he had serious doubts as to how "great" it actually was. He couldn't understand why this kid's parents would let him stay out here so long, or what could possibly have made him decide that "people are stupid" in the first place. He could always ask, but... 

"Hey! Why are you so quiet? Come to think of it, why are _you_ the one asking all the questions? You're the one who's supposed to be interrogated!" 

This made James realize that he had been staring off into space as he thought, so he quickly turned his attention back to Jon. "I suppose you're right. So ask me." 

"Okay, first what were you doing on my property?" 

"Doing? I believe I was sleeping." 

"Mmhmm. That's what me and Riza thought, too. You were either sleeping or dying, 'cause you kept making these real funny strangling noises. Like this." Jon demonstrated, leaving James gritting his teeth as he tried to smile. Well, he had certainly never snored like _that_. "But it's okay," the boy continued. "I guess you didn't know you were on my property, after all. At least you'll never make that mistake again." 

"Of course I won't... is that _all_ the questions? Just one?" 

Jon appeared to be thinking hard before he answered. "Yep. Just one. You can leave now... if... if you want." 

James hid a smile, hearing the reluctance in his voice. So maybe the kid was lonely after all? "I have another question first. _Why_ do you want to stay out here by yourself? There must be a reason." 

Jon just studied him for a time, those too-knowing eyes seeming to judge him. "I could tell you that... But I think I'll see if you can beat me in a Pokémon battle first. Then I'll tell you. If you win." 

"You seem awfully confident..." James commented slowly. Jon grinned happily. 

"Of course! Riza's never been beat by anyone! Even though she's only been in two battles..." he finished a little more quietly. "But I'm sure she can beat anything you got! So let's go already, a one-on-one battle!" he cheered, the confidence returning to his voice. 

James nodded, finding Jon's enthusiasm to be catching. This could possibly be fun... But which Pokémon to use? He didn't want to be too hard on the kid, so maybe he shouldn't use a water type... the combination of Weezing's gas and fire was potentially dangerous... Dugtrio couldn't possibly do well at all against a Pokémon that could fly... He sighed heavily. So the choice was obvious, then. 

"Go, Victreebel!" Although weak against fire, maybe it would have a fighting chance against a lower level Pokémon. 

"Wow! That's a cool Pokémon!" Jon cried excitedly. "Can I play with it after the match?" 

"We'll see," James answered. If Victreebel behaved itself, that is. It wasn't doing anything upsetting at the moment, just resting and watching the boy's Pokéball as if it was eager to begin. At least, James hoped that was all it was. 

"Okay! Go, Riza!" Although he was expecting something formidable-looking, James still jumped at the sight of the Charizard. It was big; possibly bigger than the twerps kid's Charizard. But he swallowed hard, forcing himself to continue. 

"Alright, Victreebel! Start off with your Razor Leaf!" The green and yellow Pokémon screamed once before obeying, jumping up and scattering razor sharp leaves straight at it's opponent. 

"Riza, burn up that stuff!" Only a few of the leaves managed to hit thier target before the rest blew apart into ash. Not only was it big, it was fairly fast, too. Maybe someone had given it to the boy and trained it beforehand? Or had he trained it himself? James had to remind himself that this was no time to get analytical before he yelled out another command. 

"Now use Vine Whip!" 

"Riza, ya gotta fly up away from it!" The Charizard might be fairly fast, but it's size still made it a bit slow to get off the ground; yet Victreebel only managed to get it's vines wrapped around the base of the other Pokémon's two broad wings before it lifted off. This resulted in an interesting sight, to say the least: Victreebel dangling from it's vines around the wings of Riza, hanging over the ground as the Charizard swooped up and down. 

"Victreebel, just shorten the vines and get as close to it as you can!" James yelled up at his Pokémon, which miraculously obeyed instantly. This was going rather well. 

"Oh no! Riza, shake it off!" The Charizard twisted and rolled in it's flight, but was unable to loosen the vines' tight grip. 

"Okay now... Sleep Powder, but nice and slow, let it down easy and let go before it lands, then get out of the way." Slowly, the slightly wearied Charizard lowered to the earth as the Sleep Powder took affect, floating down with it's wings more than flapping. Victreebel loosened itself and bounced away at the last second, avoiding a weight that would surely have crushed it. Riza's eyes closed gently and it fell asleep while Victreebel just watched, sitting calmly. Amazing. 

"Oh... that was good, Riza," Jon sighed, patting his sleeping Pokémon's nose. He called it back, then looked over at James. Instead of looking depressed that he had lost, he was grinning from ear to ear. "Wow... what a cool Pokémon. That was an awesome battle, Jim." 

Blinking in surprise for a moment, James composed himself enough to smile back. "Thanks. That Charizard of yours is really something, too." 

"Ya think so?" 

"Sure. If you keep training her, someday she'll be unstoppable." 

Jon smiled up at him in gratitude for a moment before he dropped to sit on the ground, sighing. "Well. Guess I gotta tell ya the answers to your questions now." 

"Only if you want," James replied carefully, seating himself next to the boy. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Victreebel had scooted over so that it was rather close to the two of them, but he decided to pay it no mind for the moment. 

"I said I'd tell ya if ya won, so I will." Jon seemed to be thinking for a moment, looking at the ground in front of his feet. "See... I think people are stupid 'cause... well, they just are. We had to move to this stupid city two years ago, and I hadta leave all my old friends behind. I don't want any friends here, 'cause I know it won't be the same... and it was my parents' stupid fault we had to move. I don't wanna be around _anybody_ anymore." 

James could detect the bitterness in his voice. It was obvious that he meant those things. "I see... Well, you know, I used to feel the same way." 

"Really? You did, Jim?" 

"Yes. Everyone at my house was tough on me when I was a kid, and I ran away a long time ago. I didn't think anyone would ever be my friend, but when I made some at last... well, I felt better. I still can't go back to my old home... but tell me, is your family tough on you?" 

"N... no... not really." 

"You shouldn't blame them for moving, it might have just been something that had to be done. And if they're not mean to you... I'm sure they miss you a lot since you decided you didn't want to be around them. And as for having new friends... new friends can be just as good as old friends. Sometimes better. Trust me." 

Jon continued to look into James' eyes after he had finished, as if trying to read sincerity there. A few minutes of silence later, he nodded. "I think you're right. I'm gonna go home soon and see my mom and dad... I _do_ miss them. Maybe I should stay with them more..." 

"Maybe that would be good." 

"Yeah," Jon nodded, suddenly smiling again. "I just can't believe _you_ ran away from home." 

"Hm? Why's that?" 

"You don't strike me as the independent type." 

"You know something?" James sighed, reaching over to tug the boy's hat further over his eyes. "There's a word for kids like you." 

"Yeah, what?" Jon asked, tilting his head back to see out from under the hat's edge. 

"Precocious." 

"I dunno what that means, but it better be good," the boy scoffed. He jumped to his feet then and looked down at James. "I think I'm gonna go sleep in my own bed at home tonight, but I thought of something else to ask ya first." 

"Ask away." 

"Okay. What are ya doing out here, anyway? Sleeping under a tree when you should be sleeping in a house or something." 

"Oh, that's simple. I'm on a Pokémon journey." 

"Really?! Oh wow, that's so cool! How many badges do you have? Do you sleep under trees _every_ night? Do you have the badge from Vermilion yet? Isn't Lt. Surge a jerk? What other Pokémon do you have?" 

James just laughed, and tried to remember to answer all those questions in order, then showed Jon the badges he had won, which the boy gawked at in awe. 

"Wow..." was all he could seem to say once James had finished explaining everything. "I only asked 'cause I wanna go on a Pokémon journey too... well, when I'm old enough. I better go... but will ya stay here overnight and say goodbye to me in the morning? I'd like ya to..." He trailed off there, just noticing Victreebel by his side. "Oh... ya didn't call your Victreebel back yet..." 

He began to move in closer to it, slowly, and put out a hand to gently rub the smooth surface of it's body. It didn't move beyond darting it's eyes from James to the boy and back again, but it made a contented sound deep in it's throat, one that James had never heard it make before. 

"You know... I think it likes you," he commented in wonder. 

"Me too," Jon said happily. "It's so cool..." 

Victreebel, cool? Hyperactive, unpredictable, and uncontrollable at times, maybe, but "cool" would take some getting used to. Not giving voice to those thoughts, James just smiled and returned the plant Pokémon to it's ball. 

"It's getting dark... I'll see ya in the morning, right?" 

"Sure. I'll be here." 

"Okay. Say, Jim... I got one more question." 

"_Another_ question? I thought there was only supposed to be one." 

"I know... but this is a... _personal_ question," Jon continued with a grin that somehow made James feel uncomfortable. "Do you have a girlfriend?" 

"Um... is it important that I do?" 

"Just answer the question already!" 

"Well... not... exactly..." 

"Jaaaaaaames! There you are, I found you! It's about time, I said _around_ Vermilion, not one mile out!" 

There was only one person who could squeeze the breath out of him in that way, and that person was Myrea. "And you said _two_ weeks, not one," he squeaked. 

"I said two weeks _tops_," the green-haired girl emphasized, letting go of him at last, only to sit looking at him with her hands clasped in front of her. "Oh, you look so well! You're not sick and you haven't broken any limbs... it's so good to see you again! Unless you haven't been training... James, don't tell me you haven't been training." 

There were thunderheads forming in her eyes at the very thought. With a grimace, James pulled the Thunder Badge back out of his pocket and showed it to her, after which she was all smiles again. "That's so great, I'm sure you mauled Surge... what did you use?" When he told her about Dugtrio, she was even more excited. "That's great, too! James, you're finally proving you can do things on your own! You should be proud!" 

Unfortunately, Jon decided to take that moment to make his presence known. "Ohhh... so this is your girlfriend. Yep, I could tell that you're the kind of guy who needs a girl to take care of you," he announced slyly. 

"Oh! And who is this charming and intelligent young man? I was so excited to find James, I guess I must have missed you." James wanted to groan. Just what he needed. Two of them. 

"I'm Jon! And I caught James on my property, so I brought him back here and we had a Pokémon battle. James won with his really cool Victreebel. It was fun!" 

"Oh, I see," Myrea smiled. "He's a pretty nice guy, huh?" 

"Yeah, he's great. Oh... I really better go home. I'll see you and your... _girlfriend_ tomorrow morning, okay, Jim?" Jon called over his shoulder, waving back as he ran off through the trees. 

"She's not my--" James started to yell back at him, but found himself cut off when Myrea clapped a hand over his mouth. 

"You be quiet. What he doesn't know won't hurt him," she added, taking her hand away. "I'd expect a little better of you, really, you _are_ older than he is. Think of the example you're setting." Her expression softened a little. "I really did miss you a lot... You know, I even missed the cute way you squirm when I scold you." 

This made him frown hard at the ground. He _never_ squirmed, how ridiculous. 

"Not to mention the way you pout when you're denying something you know is true," Myrea grinned. James scowled harder. Pouting? Of course not. Still... Myrea seemed to know him so well... only his partners knew things like that about him. Former partners. His scowl slipped into a much smaller frown. Obviously sensing his changing mood, Myrea spoke again. 

"Hey, so what really happened today with that little boy? Tell me all about it." So he did, and by the time he was finished, she looked amazed. "James... I take it all back. You set a perfect example. I'm not sure I could have done as good." 

He just nodded, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. She seemed to understand this. "Well, why don't we get some sleep? Looks like we'll have a roof over our heads tonight, huh?" 

"Looks that way," he answered shortly, helping her carry everything inside. He didn't really mind the worried glances she kept casting his way, especially not when he realized why the cottage seemed so familiar: it had been an old hideout a long time ago. Too many memories under that roof. 

He spent most of the night trying to keep those memories away. 

***** 

Just as they were finishing breakfast, Jon returned to his "base", running so fast he almost tripped over Marril. 

"Great, you're still here! Not like I thought you'd leave without saying goodbye to me... But I brought someone to meet ya!" 

Startled, James stood up in time to see a pleasant-looking couple emerge from the trees in the same direction Jon had come running from. "This is my mom and dad! They wanted to meet you!" Smiling at the boy's enthusiasm, James greeted them as politely as he could. 

"Jon has told us about what happened..." his mother began. "We're so grateful to you for doing what no one else has managed to do. We were afraid we'd never get our little boy back again." 

"You've done so much for us. How can we repay you?" Jon's father spoke up next. 

"Oh... it wasn't anything. I just wanted to help him, that's all. I don't need anything in return for that." 

After several minutes more of idle conversation, Jon's mother began talking a bit hesitantly, as if unsure of James' reaction. "There was one more thing..." 

"Yeah! I wanted to ask you, Jim, if I could travel with ya for awhile! My mom and dad said it was okay if you said yes, just until the summer's over, I could learn a lot from you, please say yes, pleeeaaase?" 

"Feel free to say no," his father laughed. "He was just so insistent that we agreed to it. It _would_ be a good learning experience for him... He's seemed to learn so much from you already." 

"Well, I..." James looked back over at Myrea; she shrugged and smiled, seeming to indicate the decision was up to him. "Well, why not?" 

***** 

Later, James wondered why two people he had just met would possibly trust him enough to let him look after their son for two months. Maybe they really _were_ that trusting... or maybe Yume had a hand in their decision. He just hoped he had made the right decision himself by saying "yes". 

_God, James. Look at you. Now you're a babysitter, of all things._

"Hey, Jim! Pay attention to where you're walking! Where are we going next, anyway? You gonna go get another badge? Huh? Can we sleep under a _tree_ tonight?" 

James just rolled his eyes at the sarcastic tone Jon's voice had taken on that last question. Then he was just opening his mouth to respond with a smart remark of his own, when Myrea suddenly jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. Closing his mouth, he wondered how she _knew_ that. 

Wondering how he had gotten himself into this wouldn't help, so he decided to just forget about it. There would be plenty of time to think on that later.


	8. Sweet Scent of Victory

Wish: Chapter Eight - Sweet Scent of Victory 

Notes: I was confused for a little while as to the order James should be getting his badges, here... In the game, you get the Rainbow Badge THEN the Marsh Badge, but Ash got the Marsh badge first in the anime. I'm just following the game, because I'm not a follower of Ash at all. :P Anyways, James gets his fourth badge in this chapter.... like you couldn't have figured that out already. ^_^; 

Disclaimer: I've said it before and I'll probably say it a hundred more times: I don't own the characters. At least not the licensed ones. 

***** 

"Myrea? Have you seen the aspirin? I need it." 

"Oh, cut that out. It's not going to hurt you to battle him again. You need the practice just as much as he does." 

"Do I _have_ to?" 

"Well, now that you're whining about it, yes. Just try to behave yourself." Shoving him over in Jon's direction, Myrea went to sit on the ground a short distance away, obviously intending to watch. James considered grumbling some more, but it really wouldn't do him any good. Jon had wanted to battle him _every day_ that week, maybe trying to beat him just once, since he hadn't succeeded in doing that so far. The kid was annoying, and in more ways than one. 

"C'mon Jim, we ain't got all day here! At least your _girlfriend_ has enough sense to make you battle, otherwise you never would!" 

James had at least half a dozen retorts on the tip of his tongue for that one, but he could feel Myrea's eyes burning holes in his back, warning him against doing anything of the sort. So he just growled under his breath and grabbed a Pokéball. 

"Go, Weezing!" 

"Gooo, Riza! Start off with a good Flamethrower!" 

"Dodge and Smog it from behind!" 

"Turn around and give it some more fire!" 

"Go _up_, Weezing!" 

After all that, Weezing was hovering high overhead, while Riza was considerably stunned by the explosion it had been caught in. Jame just called his Pokémon back before watching Jon hug his Charizard around it's slender neck. 

"Oh... I'm sorry again, Riza. We'll win someday." He called it back, then stood looking at James. "Riza's only won the first two battles she was in... but ever since I met you, she's lost. Why is that?" 

"Maybe just because James has been a trainer longer," Myrea smiled at him, getting up to stand next to James. 

"_Maybe_?" James questioned incredulously. 

"Okay, probably." 

"That's very funny." 

"Uh, are you two having a lovers' quarrel? Do you want me to leave you alone for awhile?" Jon asked suddenly, sounding quite innocent but not looking that way in the slightest. 

"She's not my--" 

"Ahaha, what he means to say is, since we're so close to Celadon City right now, why don't we take our Pokémon to the Center? I'm sure they need it by now, and we'll have a chance to look around then before we head to the gym." 

"All right, the gym!" Jon cheered, thankfully forgetting the previous subject. 

"Um.. are you sure? We're going today? My stomach..." 

"You wimping out, Jim? C'mon, let's go!" Jon raced off without bothering without bothering to grab any of his things. James sighed, his shoulders drooping. 

"Are you sure we don't have any aspirin?" 

"Hey, what's wrong? You'll be fine... James, you'll get used to him being around." He looked at her doubtfully, but she just slapped him on the back good-naturedly and set to cleaning up the campsite. Offhand, he supposed that he _had_ gotten used to having the boy around... most of the time. It certainly livened things up considerably. 

"You heard him. C'mon, let's go!" Myrea snapped him out of his thoughts, shoving a bag into his arms. 

"Oh... right," he replied slowly, following her as she made her way to the direction Jon had gone. 

"It's pretty bad if you're spacing out already," she tossed back at him teasingly. He shook his head. It _was_ pretty bad, come to think of it... 

***** 

"Thank you! Your Pokémon will all be ready to go in just a few hours! Have fun 'til then!" 

Nurse Joy's sugary smile could have caused cavities. "Um... sure, we will," James replied halfheartedly as Myrea tugged him through the Pokémon Center door. Jon had already taken off somewhere, leaving the two of them to take all the Pokémon that needed it to the center. 

"Ohh James, Celadon is so pretty," Myrea smiled happily, clutching his arm as though she was claiming him as a possession. Several people were staring at them as they walked together up the street; James cleared his throat uncomfortably. 

"Myrea, do you think that you could..." 

"I'm sorry, am I squeezing too hard? There now, is that better?" James just sighed, deciding it was best to just give up protesting. She would just do as she liked, anyway. Then he remembered what he was going to be doing later today, and his stomach suddenly felt fluttery and tied up in knots at the same time. 

_God, James, just put it out of your mind. You still have a few hours._

"Thinking about battling again, right? Don't worry.. you'll do fine. There's nothing to be so worried about!" He tried to smile at Myrea's assurance. Of course there was nothing to worry about... no, nothing at all... 

"Anyway, where do you suppose Jon has gone off to? I'm not sure it was such a good idea to let him just run off like that..." 

"I don't know. He'll turn up sooner or later though, he's really pretty used to taking care of himself." 

"I guess so... but a nine year old boy running around alone in a city like this is just asking for trouble, in my opinion." 

"_Now_ who's worrying?" James teased. "So where do you want to go?" 

"Oh, let's see..." Myrea stopped walking and tapped a finger against her lips as she thought. "There's at least half a dozen flower shops I saw as we were coming in that I'd like to look at... and then there's that perfume store..." 

"Flowers? Perfume? I don't know..." 

"Oh come on _James_, it'll be fun!" Giggling, she grabbed his arm again and practically dragged him from shop to shop, somehow managing to embarrass him in every single one. It was in the perfume store, of all places, that they found Jon. 

"Hi Jim! Hi Jim's girlfriend!" he yelled over at them from across the room, waving frantically. For some odd reason, he refused to call Myrea anything other than "Jim's girlfriend". Maybe just to be annoying. It certainly worked. 

"There you are! We were wondering where you had gotten to... but here?" Myrea grinned down at the boy when they walked over to join him. 

"Why not? I was just thinking... what kind of perfume would Jim get for his girlfriend? I got it narrowed down to these two: Daffodil Dream and Vivacious Violet," he announced proudly, holding up two colored glass bottles. "Want to smell them?" 

Myrea dutifully smelled them both, while James watched in complete bafflement. Perfume? Why? 

"They're both very nice," Myrea affirmed at last, putting one bottle back on the shelf. "But I think I'd go with Vivacious Violet." When she looked at James, her smile turned mischievous. "You boys go outside and wait for me while I buy it." 

But standing outside turned out to be rather uncomfortable for James. "I don't know, Jim... you let your girlfriend carry all your money? What, does she manage it better than you?" 

"Well, what do _you_ know about perfume?" 

"I know enough. Besides, my dad used to buy my mom perfume and it made her happier than she already was. I thought maybe it would work for you, too. You don't want your girlfriend to be happy?" 

"It's not that... it's just that she's not my--" 

"Okay, I'm back! Our Pokémon should be ready soon, so let's just head back to the Center." 

"Cool! I wanna get there first!" Jon cried happily before breaking into a run without much regard for anything that might get in his path. James sighed heavily. 

"I wish I knew what that was all about in there," he mumbled as Myrea followed Jon with him at a much slower pace. 

"He's just concerned about the two of us, that's all." James decided not to respond to this, but after awhile he realized that she was opening the small paper bag she had brought out from the store. She took the bottle of perfume out, then tossed the bag in the next trash can they passed. 

"Here, James," she said, stopping to press the bottle into his hand. "I want you to have this." 

James looked confused. "You want _me_ to wear it?" 

"No, silly!" she laughed. Her expression grew serious again. "Give it... I want you to give it to your Jessie, when you see her again." 

"Oh... I... thank you." James couldn't figure out what else to say. The bottle wasn't very big, so he just slipped it into his pocket. "I... well, I..." 

"Your face is cute when it gets all red like that," Myrea interrupted suddenly. She was smiling again, at least. 

"I... I..." 

"Oh stop stuttering and let's go. You've got a badge to win, right?" 

"Right," he finally managed to smile back. The fluttery nervous feeling had miraculously faded already. All he could think about now was getting another step closer to his goal... closer to his friends. 

***** 

"...and your name, please?" 

"It's... heheh... James." 

"Um... okay. James, we can schedule you for... well, how does right now sound? There isn't anyone else scheduled for another hour." 

"That sounds... heh... oh, that sounds fine." 

"Uh... alright. Down the hall and to your left." 

"What's the matter with you?" Myrea chided as the two of them headed in the indicated direction. "Why did you keep laughing back there? ...Were you laughing at _me_?" 

Keeping a straight face _had_ been hard, and it was no wonder the receptionist kept looking at him funny. It was just that when that memory had surfaced in his mind... "Heh... no, I wasn't laughing at you... haha... I was laughing at... heh... at Ashley." 

"Ashley? Was that the receptionist girl? Do you know her?" 

"No, but don't worry about it. I'll tell you all about it someday." It was impossible to keep a smile off his face. Myrea just shook her head. 

"Whatever it is, it must be funny..." 

His mirth was considerably dampened, however, when they finally reached the main gym area. Jon was waiting in the small audience, like he had said he would, and after giving James a word of encouragement and squeezing his hand gently, Myrea went to join him. _Now_, of course, the fluttery feeling decided to hit him right in the stomach, and hard. Ignoring it as best he could, he walked to his side of the gym floor, facing Erika. 

The black-haired girl had certainly changed little; she was still the prettiest of the female gym leaders, or so James had always thought. He'd just never told anyone that, for obvious reasons. 

"You must be James," she smiled at him. "Welcome to the Celadon Gym. I'm sure you'd like to leave here with a Rainbow Badge today, hm?" 

Although he wasn't paying much attention to what he said, it must have been satisfactory, for Erika nodded. "Very well, then. It will be a two Pokémon match. Are you ready?" 

"I'm ready." 

"Alright. For my first Pokémon, I choose Vileplume!" 

James almost started feeling sick again. Vileplume brought back some... unpleasant memories. "Victreebel!" he called out, tossing it's ball. It had been a hard decision, choosing it for the first round, but after a lot of thought before the match, he had decided it would probably be best. At least it was behaving now; it just stood calmly after it looked around and saw James, then Jon. Something about the boy seemed to settle it, but James had no idea what. 

"Yay! Victreebel!" Jon cheered from the audience. Erika smiled. 

"That's a very nice Victreebel," she commented. "It's leaves are just the right shade of green. I can see it's been well taken care of." James just reddened and stammered a thank you at this praise. He had never thought that Erika, of all people, would approve of Victreebel. "But I suppose there will be time for admiring Pokémon _after_ the match. Alright Vileplume, start it off with Stun Spore!" 

As the gym leader's Pokémon released the spore, James smiled. What he had been counting on was Victreebel's great speed. That Vileplume wouldn't be moving around much with that heavy head. "Keep out of it's range and send your vine over to Wrap it!" 

Victreebel's vine could extend amazingly far, and as it stood just outside the cloud of Stun Spore, it's vine shot through and wrapped tightly around the Vileplume, squeezing it hard. 

"Try to shake it off, Vileplume!" It _did_ manage to free itself of the vine, but by that time the spore had dissipated and Victreebel could rush in bodily now to slam into the much slower and out of breath Vileplume. 

Erika was still smiling as she returned her Pokémon to it's ball. James figured that must be a good sign. "That seemed easy for your Victreebel. I must admit I have never seen one quite like that... In any case, let's move on." 

James opted to call Victreebel back, and this time chose Seel for something different. Seel had become quite well-trained in a short period of time, and had a few good non-water attacks and even Ice Beam to use against any grass Pokémon Erika was likely to pick. He just prayed it wasn't Gloom. 

Of course, it was. 

"Go, Gloom! Petal Dance!" James took a step back. _This_ was rather unexpected. "Never let the unexpected distract you from a victory", he remembered Myrea telling him once. 

Seel was knocked around several times by the force of the attack and was visibly shaken, but now Gloom was confused, and that was where James' chance lay. "Use Headbutt a few times!" he yelled to his Pokémon. Gloom was wobbling about, acting very dizzy as Seel managed to get several good hits in. Erika just stood back and watched silently, knowing there was nothing she could do to control her own Pokémon now. 

"Take Down, Seel! Finish it!" For a few seconds, it looked as though Seel would win. But then Gloom started to smell. Bad. 

All the humans in the gym had to hold their noses; Seel was so close to the Gloom that it had a hard time functioning. Gloom didn't seem so confused anymore. Hurriedly, James called Seel back, since it obviously wasn't going to do anymore good out there, and considered his options for a split second. He threw out a Pokéball, unable to come to any other decision. 

Victreebel screamed as it appeared, but it seemed happy to be out again. James knew that it didn't have a great sense of smell... he'd have to depend on that. "Razor Leaf!" 

Victreebel obeyed, and seemed to have no real problem with Gloom's odor. And fortunately, the bad-smelling Pokémon was weakened enough by Seel and it's own confusion that it didn't take long for it to fall over, defeated. 

"Well, well," Erika smiled when it was all over. "Your Victreebel proved to be more than a match for me... it's a wonderful Pokémon. Oh, I believe this is yours now." James accepted the Rainbow Badge she handed him as graciously as he was able. But he wanted to laugh, or jump up and down in a most undignified way. As it was, he _did_ start to cry. But from joy, not sadness. 

_I'm halfway to the League... Jessie... Meowth... I want to see you again..._

***** 

"Hey Jim, what was the matter with ya? Ya shoulda been happy that you got a badge... but you bawled half the time! Or was the Gloom stink just too much for ya?" 

"Don't tease James," Myrea scolded, resting a hand on top of Jon's head as he walked alongside her. James was on her other side as the left Celadon City behind, merely looking amused as he studied the landscape ahead. He was still too happy to be bothered by the boy's sarcasm. 

"He wasn't sad... he was just very, very happy," the green-haired girl continued. "Weren't you?" She looked to James for confirmation. He looked at them sideways, then stopped abruptly to get down on one knee in front of Jon, putting his best mock pathetic face on. 

"No! I'm so upset! I wanted to _lose_! Here, take this badge. I didn't even want it!" He held the shiny piece of metal out on his palm, and Jon's eyes lit up in wonder. 

"Cool! I can have it? I... hey, that's mean!" James had snatched it away at the last second, and now he stood up and put the badge back where it belonged, grinning devilishly. 

"Oh yeah? I can't believe you _fell_ for it." 

"Hey! Are you gonna let him get away with that!?" the boy demanded of Myrea. She just giggled. 

"Oh, it's alright. It's good to see him in such a good mood. Anyway..." she continued as the trio resumed walking, with Jon grumbling under his breath occasionally. "That seemed like a pretty easy match, didn't it?" 

"Yes... it did," James answered reflectively. He _had_ given it a bit of thought, and it _had_ seemed easy. Maybe it wouldn't be so easy from here on out... but he was coming to realize that he didn't care. He knew he would do just about anything within his power to win and reach his ultimate goal... no matter how difficult that turned out to be.


	9. Sacrifice

Wish: Chapter Nine - Sacrifice

Notes: Veering away from the comedy route this fic has seemed to take more often than not, this chapter is pure melodrama. Yeah! ^__^ James gets fed up with someone, and something bad happens. I think that's about all I can say without giving the rest away. 

Disclaimer: Cori-chan doesn't own Pokémon. She cries often because of that. She also talks about herself in third person for no good reason. :p

***** 

"Where's your girlfriend gotten off to? I haven't seen her in awhile." 

James rolled his eyes and hunched down farther over his work, pretending not to hear. Figuring out if he could salvage the empty Pokéball he had accidentally stepped on this morning and managed to crush into three pieces _was_ hard work, after all. Probably futile, but it was something to do while ignoring Jon and trying to look like he wasn't. 

There was roughly only two weeks left until the end of the summer, a mere fortnight until the boy would be going back home. It was hard to believe it had been that long, but... James couldn't say he was sorry. He should have felt guilty about that, but lately the kid had just seemed so annoying. The only reason he hadn't lost his temper yet was most likely because of Myrea. She had a tendency to be very protective of Jon, and that protectiveness seemed to include keeping James from saying or doing anything she considered "rude". And somehow she always knew when he was about to. It wasn't like he had a quick temper at all, but lately... 

"Hey! I _said_, where did your girlfriend go?" 

"She said she was going to wash her hair," James answered as evenly as he could, hoping to satisfy the boy's curiosity and get him off his back at the same time. Of course, that never seemed to work. 

"Oh really? Why aren't ya helping her? Or are ya having problems with your relationship again? Come to think of it, you've been in a really bad mood lately. You not getting enough sleep or what? I know she's been having ya train an awful lot, but you really need to stop acting like a..." 

At this point, he trailed off slowly to stare at James, who had actually jumped up to loom over the much shorter boy, clenching his hands into fists in an effort not to grab ahold of him. He'd finally had enough, and Jon obviously sensed it. "Now look here, you little brat. I don't think I need you telling me what to do, and I definitely don't need your opinions. Why don't you just shut up so it can actually be quiet around here for a change?" 

It hadn't been what he'd meant to say, and it certainly hadn't been called for. But James didn't even feel sorry, not even as he watched Jon's reaction. The boy's eyes had grown progressively wider during James' ranting, but now he narrowed them, trying to look angry despite the tears filling them. "Oh... that's fine, Jim. If that's what ya want, I'll just leave ya alone so it'll be quiet." 

"Why don't you do that?" James grumbled back, dropping to the ground again to resume examining the broken Pokéball. Seconds later, he looked up to see that the boy was indeed gone. Naturally, it was then that remorse chose to strike. 

_God, James, you're an idiot! Look what you've done now... and Myrea's going to kill you. There are better ways to dig a grave for yourself..._

Sighing, he flopped backwards to stare up at the sky, flinging the Pokéball pieces aside. It couldn't be fixed, anyway. What really needed fixed was his attitude. Jon had been right about that much. He could always have blamed it on Jessie, her angry emotions constantly festering like an open wound in the back of his brain. Normally he could filter them out, but lately he hadn't even tried. Even Myrea had been put back by some of his behavior these past weeks. He would just have to try harder in the future not to let it get to him, but for now he had to fix the damage he'd already done. 

Getting to his feet, he went out to search for Jon, hoping to return with him and have everything smoothed over before Myrea got back. How hard could it be to find the kid, anyway? 

***** 

Two hours later, he was desperate. If he kept going out much farther away from the camp, he was going to get lost. It was true that they had spent more than a week training in this area, and he had become rather familiar with the territory, but this was getting ridiculous. He must have already searched a two mile radius! 

And he could only imagine what Myrea was doing right now. Probably looking for the both of them, worried out of her mind. And also getting ready to kill him. She'd know, just like she always did. It wasn't as though he as scared of her, but... she certainly knew how to put someone in their place when she felt it was needed. And it wasn't exactly fun, James knew that well enough already. It wasn't the same as when Jessie got mad, but... He shook his head. There was no time to think about that now. 

Coming to the top of another rise, he stopped to survey the area. Nothing. Except... There was a noise coming from somewhere ahead, perhaps just over the next small hill. A faint noise, sounding... muffled somehow? 

As cautiously as he could, he crept up to the top of the hill and looked over. What he saw froze him in place momentarily. Jon _was_ there, but he wasn't alone. The largest Arbok James had ever seen was coiled tightly around the boy, slowly squeezing him. 

Perhaps he had just stumbled into it's nest unaware, or maybe the Pokémon had actually attacked him without provocation; whatever the reason, it really didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was saving Jon. 

He looked pale and very scared, no doubt extremely uncomfortable, so out of breath that he could only moan as he rolled his eyes in James' direction. At least the boy knew that James was there now and could calm himself. A little. No matter how certain you are to be saved, being squeezed by a giant snake would still be far from a calming experience. 

Then James realized: he had left all his Pokémon behind, not anticipating the need for them. Cursing his stupidity, he searched desperately for something, anything he could do. He spotted a Pokéball laying on the ground a few feet away from the Arbok. It must have fallen there when it had attacked Jon, maybe before he had the chance to call it out. Riza. 

James knew there was probably nothing he could do himself to free the boy, but maybe Riza could distract the other Pokémon enough that it would let him go. It was worth a try... all he needed to do was call it out. He started forward as quickly as he dared, the Arbok only looking at him briefly before turning it's attention back to Jon. At least it wasn't going to give him any trouble. But as soon as his hand closed over the ball... 

Searing pain cut deeply into James' chest, causing him to let go of the ball and fall backwards, landing hard on the ground and gasping desperately for breath. 

_Why? What's happening?_

Realization came quickly. By taking Jon's Pokéball without his permission in this way, he was inadvertently stealing, even though it was for a good reason rather than a bad one. And the bracelet Yume had given him apparently couldn't distinguish between the two reasons. 

James sat up slightly, enough to see that Jon's face was turning blue, his moans becoming sickening gurgles deep in his throat. Desperation forced him to get up and crawl back toward the ball, fighting the agonizing pain that reappeared, twice as sharp this time and hot like fire. He could have sworn he was about to die when he finally held it in his hand, and it took every ounce of willpower he had to keep from screaming. 

"Go... go, Riza," he gasped out, trying to toss it at the Arbok's head, but only managing to get it to roll to a stop by the end of it's tail, which would have to do. Then he dropped flat on his face, unable to support himself any longer, the pain gone but the effect still taking it's toll. 

So he didn't see the Charizard appear, roaring in anger at the sight of it's master's predicament, flying overhead only to swoop down and crush the snake Pokémon's head in it's massive claws. Freed from the Arbok, Jon fell to the ground only a few feet from James, his breathing hard and frantic. When he was able, James finally crawled over to the younger boy. 

"Are you... you okay?" Jon nodded slowly, his eyes still closed, but he reached out to touch Riza's foot as it sat anxiously nearby. "Listen, I'm sorry... I'm sorry this happened. If I hadn't been so mean to you, this never would have..." His words died away as Jon shook his head. 

"No, Jim... ya got no reason to be sorry... it could've happened to me anytime... and if ya hadn't felt bad and come to look for me... it would've been too late by the time ya _did_ get here. I shoulda left that Arbok alone, anyway... it was a stupid thing to do." 

"But I'm still sorry," James continued earnestly. "I really shouldn't have said those things... I'm still just a idiot who needs to change from what I once was..." 

"I'm not sure I understand what ya mean, but I forgive you. I'll try not to be so annoying from now on... cuz I guess I was overdoing it..." 

"Oh my god..." Myrea's voice made them both turn to look over at her as she stood gaping at them, Riza, and the dead Arbok in turn. "What _happened_ here?" She all but ran over to kneel beside them, her eyes scanning over them as if looking for any visible injuries. "Are you two alright? Tell me... tell me everything that happened." 

Jon obliged her, telling her in a voice still half out of breath the whole story. She glared angrily at James during most of the first part, leaving him wishing he was anywhere but sitting within her reach. But later, she just looked sad, staring at the ground as Jon finished the story. 

"And neither of you is hurt?" she finally asked after a time. They both assured her that they weren't, after which she simply reached out to hug Jon. "You're very lucky that you weren't bitten. I'm so glad... you're both alright," she concluded, sitting back again to smile faintly at James. "Let's go back to camp and get some rest, okay? I have a feeling you'll be needing it." They nodded in agreement and began the long, slow walk back, each of them quiet in their own thoughts. 

***** 

"Look at him now... he's so peaceful. I suppose he was scared at the time, but he's almost forgotten about it already. He's a pretty tough little kid." 

James just nodded without saying a word and continued to watch Jon as he slept on the other side of the little fire they had built for the night. It was dying down now, tiny wisps of smoke curling up into the black sky. The boy _was_ sleeping peacefully, very peacefully for someone who had had such a close brush with death. James, on the other hand, still felt sick to his stomach whenever he thought about it. 

"You're awfully quiet," Myrea continued next, looking at him now instead. "But I hope you realize now why I always made you keep your temper in check around him. Kids have a tendency to do dangerous things when they're upset. A lot of experience has taught me that. I should be extremely angry with you now... but I think you've been through enough already without me being like that. After all, you saved his life." 

"Riza saved his life." 

She seemed startled by his sudden statement, but she soon had a reply. "Without you, Riza wouldn't have been able to save him." 

"Without me, there wouldn't have been a reason to _need_ to save him." 

"James..." 

"If he had died, Myrea... I would have been responsible. What would I have told his parents? 'Thank you for trusting me with your son's care, but my stupidity killed him'? Why did I... why did I even..." He couldn't say much more as tears started to run down his face in what felt like rivers; he was dimly aware of Myrea hugging him, and he momentarily felt awkward for behaving this way. 

"James, please don't do this to yourself," he finally heard Myrea saying. "You've learned your lesson, everything is forgiven, and Jon is just fine. Dwelling on 'what if' is usually unnecessary unless you're planning on putting yourself through more misery than is really needed. Honestly... Jon took this much better than you, and you weren't even in that much danger.....There now, just stop crying," she soothed, patting his back gently. When she pulled away at last, he was able to smile at her faintly. 

"Thank you." 

"It's the least I can do for you," she shrugged, giving him a warm smile in return. They sat in silence for some time before Myrea started searching her pockets for something. "Here," she said, offering him that something. James stared at it in surprise. 

Two identical pieces of gold-colored metal lay on his upturned palm, glinting dully in the remaining firelight. And looking at his left wrist, he saw for the first time that the bracelet Yume had given him was gone. Except it wasn't gone, it was laying on his hand, broken. "Where did you..." 

"I found it as we were leaving from the place the Arbok was. I figured it was yours, and I thought I'd save it for you. But what did you do to make it break apart like that? Is there something that happened that you're not telling me?" 

Her tone was accusatory. He didn't know what to say. To the best of his knowledge, he had done nothing that would cause it to break. So he offered the first weak excuse that came to mind. 

"Well, I _did_ trip once... I guess it must have smashed against a rock or something." Her eyes told him that she thought he was lying, but thankfully she just nodded and let it go at that. Why she wasn't prying the truth out was beyond him, but he was definitely grateful. 

"I think we should be getting to sleep now," was all she said. "And James..." she continued as if on impulse, giving him a stern look. "You're going to move on and stop blaming yourself, aren't you? Well?" 

She made him promise that he would before she would smile again, then she lay down to sleep. James just sat looking at the stars for a long time before he finally slept as well, his dreams restless and impossible to understand. 

***** 

The light awoke him; that glowing, pink-tinged light that seemed very familiar to him now, even though it was only the third time he'd seen it. This time, however, he wasn't frightened, and he didn't have to look to know that his two friends were still asleep. 

"Yume..." he began slowly, searching for the right words to say. "I... I'm sorry if I did something I shouldn't have and the bracelet broke because of that... I really didn't..." 

"Everything is alright," Yume assured him, her voice smooth and comforting. "You could have just gone on wearing that bracelet until your wish was complete... But you've shown through your sacrifice that you no longer have need of it. That is why it is broken now." 

"Sacrifice? What do you mean..." 

"You were willing to go through an immense amount of pain to help another. As I said, that stands as proof that it no longer needs to control your actions." 

"I see..." He thought he did, at least. "So... is the reason Jon is with us because of that?" 

"I cannot say." 

"Oh..." 

"Do not worry. Someday, you will understand everything. It will all make sense on that day. Farewell... for now." James quietly watched her fade away, then sat looking at Myrea and Jon. He _did_ understand that he was lucky to have found friends such as them. 

Laying down once more, he tried to sleep, allowing the peaceful calmness of Jessie's own sleep to drift through him. For some reason, he dreamed of her the rest of the night.


	10. Doubt

Wish: Chapter Ten - Doubt

Notes: Is doubt a good thing to have when facing Sabrina and her team of psychic Pokémon? Well of course not, duh. :P James seems to be plagued with doubt in this chapter... hmm... maybe that's why I called it "Doubt"? Nah. (Don't mind me... it's very late at night as I type this.) 

Disclaimer: I would come up with something fancy to say here, but it's still very late at night. Let's just say... I don't own Pokémon. Works for me. ^_^ 

***** 

"H... hello? Is anyone here? Anybody?" 

James' hesitant questions seemed to echo in the apparently empty Pokémon Center, but surely it was just his imagination making it sound that way. This Center certainly couldn't be empty, anyway. 

He was in the Saffron City Pokémon Center, to be exact. All he wanted was to hand his Pokémon over to the nurse so they could rest up before... "Gotta stop thinking about that," he grunted softly to himself. At least thinking about visiting his next gym was only making him feel dizzy now instead of sick to his stomach. If that could be thought of as an improvement. 

He looked around again, but he still couldn't see or hear anyone. Myrea and Jon were waiting outside, and he had told them this would only take a few seconds. "Hey! Is anyone in here?" he called out louder, wincing at the volume of his own voice. It didn't seem right, yelling in a Pokémon Center. But the door behind the desk finally opened. 

"Chansey!" 

"Oh, a Chansey. Is Nurse Joy back there?" 

"Chaaaansey, chan chan!" 

"...I'm not sure what you just said... but if she's back there, can you bring her here?" 

"Chansey!" The door swung shut as the pink Pokémon disappeared. And mere moments later, Nurse Joy appeared. 

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Chansey told me someone was waiting... but I was so wrapped up with my work back there that I didn't listen to it. How can I help you?" 

"Well, I just need to get my Pokémon rested up so..." James trailed off as Joy shook her head gently. 

"I'm sorry again... but we don't have room for any more Pokéballs just now. I'm afraid you're going to have to come back later." 

"No room? But--" 

"There are just too many trainers lately who have come to battle our gym leader... and we've been so busy here at the Center that there's about a three hour wait for an opening. I truly am sorry..." 

"Oh... that's fine. I'll just come back later." He couldn't have exactly said he was disappointed... relieved that it would take him that much longer to get to the gym was more like it. Feeling guilty about that, he walked a little more quickly out the door. 

"Hey, you've still got your Pokéballs. Are they really that fast here?" Jon asked him first, craning his neck up to look at him. 

"Not exactly..." 

"Well, what's the matter? What took you so long?" Myrea asked next, her expression very curious. 

"See... they're full. They don't have room for my Pokémon because there's a lot of trainers here to battle Sabrina... We'll just have to come back in three hours and hope there's room then." 

"Oh," was Myrea's only comment. 

"Well, I guess we got lotsa free time now!" Jon exclaimed happily. "I'm gonna go sightseeing!" 

"I don't know," James began dubiously, "I'm still trying to forget the _last_ time you went sightseeing." But the boy had already dashed off and was lost to view. 

"Oh, let him be, he can't get into too much trouble. What do you say we walk around for awhile ourselves?" James just grinned and nodded. 

With the sun hanging high overhead, it wasn't cool enough for it to be a comfortable walk, but the pair still enjoyed themselves immensely, talking and laughing over all kinds of subjects. After about an hour, in a moment of silence, James could feel Myrea's sly sideways glance. 

"Shame on you." 

"Huh? What was that?" he asked, startled, looking over and down at her. She just continued walking beside him, the look on her face not giving much away. Finally, she repeated herself. 

"I _said_, shame on you. If we had been waiting to get your Pokémon back from the Center now, you would have clammed up and spaced out long ago. You should have been a lot more upset that they didn't have any room... but you're acting relieved. Like you don't even want to get your next badge. I thought you wanted to get them as soon as you could, right?" 

"Well, I..." 

"Of course you do. I just would have thought you'd get over this little routine by now. There's really no need for you to get so worried in the first place. How many times have you lost so far?" 

"Well..." 

"That's right, none. And think how much better you would do if you didn't get so worried over nothing. So, are you understanding me?" 

"Yes, I'm understanding pretty well. Thanks for the pep talk, coach," he added with a smirk. 

"Don't get smart with me," she scolded back. But she was giggling as she said it. "Come on now, let's get going and actually find some stores to do a little shopping. I really need a new pair of shoes come to think of it, and I'm nearly out of Slowpoke food, so--" 

"Psst! Hey! You two! Are you Pokémon trainers, by any chance?" 

Myrea and James stopped dead in their tracks and blinked at each other. 

"That's right, you two! Are you here to challenge Sabrina?" 

Whirling around, the two friends saw a short girl with two huge yellow ribbons in her hair peeking out from around the side of a building at them. She beckoned them closer, and they obliged her out of curiosity. 

"Yes... I'm here to challenge her. What do you want?" James asked her. 

"I just thought I'd warn you..." the girl began slowly, looking back around the corner of the building furtively as if afraid of being seen, "...that beating Sabrina is impossible! I've tried it three times already, and a lot of my friends have tried and failed as well! There's just something about Sabrina... those freaky psychic Pokémon of hers practically scare other trainers' Pokémon into losing!" 

James stared in rapt attention at the girl, his mouth hanging slightly open. He didn't notice the way Myrea was glaring at her instead. 

"So what's your point, kid?" 

"Oh... I just wanted to let you know that going to the gym is a mistake! I've taken it upon myself to let everyone know, isn't that great?" 

"She's really... really that hard to beat?" James questioned almost to himself, his eyes widening in dismay. 

"Impossible! Why, she--" 

"That's it, we're leaving!" Myrea announced vehemently, grabbing James' hand firmly in her own. "Thanks a lot for nothing, kid." With that, she turned and stalked away angrily, towing James behind her in a way that made him feel like a troublesome kid being dragged off by his mother. He wondered how mad she was at him for listening to that girl. Of course, it wasn't a question of whether or not he'd find out. 

Myrea didn't stop until she was a decent distance away from where the girl had been, and even then she made sure they were behind a building and out of sight before she started in on him. 

"James! You didn't _really_ believe that girl, did you?" 

"Not... not really..." 

"Don't lie to me! I saw it written all over your face! You _believed_ her. She's just a little girl who's probably a poor Pokémon trainer to begin with, and she wants to scare other people away from winning a badge just because of that!" 

"But how do you know that--" 

"James, have you totally forgotten everything I told you only minutes ago? _You can do this_. Think about your friends. How would you feel about yourself if you didn't even _try_ to win? ...Besides that, I believe in you. Even if it's true, I think you have what it takes to win." 

James nodded slowly. Not all the doubt was gone from his mind... but it was lessened considerably. His friends... he _had_ to try for them. 

"Alright," Myrea sighed, suddenly looking very tired. James frowned, thinking that maybe he had caused her to become that way, but before he could offer an apology, she bounced right back to her normal self. "How about we kill two Pidgey with one stone here. I'll go find some new shoes for myself, and you go find the Slowpoke food so we can save some time. We'll meet back here when we're done. How does that sound?" 

"Good... but..." 

"Here," she smiled, handing him some money. "And James... try to keep out of trouble." 

He lifted an eyebrow. "Me, get in trouble? You weren't so worried about Jon." 

"James... please, I happen to know for a fact that you are capable of getting into far more trouble than even that little kid." 

"Gee... thanks." 

She laughed. "You know I didn't mean it that way... well, see ya soon!" She hugged him quickly, then ran off. James just stared after her for awhile before shaking his head slightly and heading in the opposite direction. 

It depressed him when he found himself hoping he would be able to stay out of trouble as well. 

***** 

"Slowpoke food, Slowpoke food... Where in the heck do they sell Slowpoke food?" James muttered to himself. 

He was still looking for a shop that actually carried Slowpoke food; it turned out that not every Pokémon food store sold every kind of food. Fortunately, the next one advertised it plain as day in the window. He was about to go in, when... 

"Excuse me, sir, but would you have a look at this?" 

Warily, he turned around to see what he thought to be a teenaged girl, her thick black hair tied into a multitude of tiny braids. Her clothes were disheveled and rather dirty, leaving one with the impression that perhaps this girl didn't have much money. She also carried an armload of Pokéballs. Even though she didn't appear too threatening, James wasn't about to take any chances after what had happened earlier that day. 

"I'm kind of busy right now, so..." 

"But sir, you _have_ to look at this. It would be especially important to you if you plan on challenging Sabrina for the Marsh Badge." 

Despite his better judgement, James gave in out of curiosity. "I guess... go on." 

The girl smiled softly. "Thank you, sir. I'm sure you already know that a lot of trainers are having trouble with Sabrina's psychic Pokémon. But the Pokémon that I'm selling all have a good advantage that would be an extremely valuable asset against them. A lot of people don't listen to me because of the way I look... but I can assure you that those who _have_ listened, won out against Sabrina. Of course, they were all excellent trainers to begin with... something tells me you are as well." 

James just stared at her, measuring her words. It really must be that hard to defeat Sabrina... what the other girl said must have been true. And if the Pokémon this girl was selling were indeed invaluable against Sabrina's Pokémon, well... what could it hurt to buy one? 

_God, James. You're probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this, but... heh, trouble. Yes, trouble always seems to find you._

He worried briefly about the price until the girl named an amount that was lower than what Myrea had given him. There wouldn't have been enough money left to buy Slowpoke food after all... so he just gave all of it to the girl, promising himself he would pay Myrea back every cent. This girl _did_ look like she needed it. 

Overjoyed, the girl praised him about a thousand times over, even waving to him until he was out of sight, holding his brand new Pokéball. He didn't know what kind of Poké was in it, or if there was anything in it at all. And despite that, he was almost sure that Myrea would completely understand once she had heard the whole story. 

***** 

"You... did... _what_? How could you just... just... James!" 

Myrea seemed incapable of speech, pacing back and forth in front of him while he just stood there, waiting for her to calm down. She hadn't let him explain much of anything, so she didn't know any details. And she also seemed too upset to listen to him explain anything at the moment. 

"But you see, I--" 

"No, I don't see. I can't imagine what in the world possessed you to do something like this. Are you really _that_ low on confidence that you would listen to some freeloading brat?" 

"But you don't understand, she--" 

"Oh, I understand that you spent _my_ money for something that's probably totally worthless." 

"I told you I'd pay you back." 

"How do you know that Pokémon you have there is going to be any good against Sabrina? Or that there's even anything in it!" 

"Well, we can--" 

"No James, I don't even want to look at it. You know what your problem is?" she asked tiredly, finally stopping for breath to look at him. He realized then that he had never seen her so angry - not at him, or at anyone else. He should have figured this would happen. 

"You're just too naive," she continued finally. "You're too trusting. You believe just about everything anyone tells you... you need to work on separating fact from fiction." 

He nodded in spite of himself. He knew it was true... it had happened too many times before. 

"I'm going to buy Slowpoke food. James... just stay here." He watched Myrea leave, then simply sat on the ground to stare at nothing. 

"Hey... what happened here?" 

"Huh? Oh... Jon," James said, momentarily startled by the boy's sudden appearance. "Nothing much... she's just a little upset right now, that's all." 

"Hmm. You two have a fight?" 

"...Not really." 

"Then what's wrong with ya, Jim? You look upset, too." 

"I don't know... it's just that every girl I know seems to think I'm an idiot." 

"Is that all? Well... I don't think you're an idiot. I'm not a girl, but it counts for somethin', right?" 

James managed a weak smile, reaching over to tug the boy's hat down lower. "Of course it does." But Jon watched in concern as James just lapsed into silence, a horrible feeling of doubt hanging over him. 

***** 

Poison was no good... but ground, water, and plant might stand a chance... 

"Kadabra, go! Are you ready to begin, James?" 

His thoughts were interrupted by Sabrina's voice; but then, it was really too late at this point to be thinking about strategy. He wished could tell Sabrina "no". 

He had never met the Saffron City gym leader before, but she seemed like a nice enough person, not the scary one he'd envisioned after hearing how tough she was to defeat. And he still didn't know if he could possibly defeat her. He didn't even have some kind of strategy worked out. 

Myrea wouldn't talk to him ever since the incident earlier in the day... not while his Pokémon were finally in the Center, and not when they were waiting to get into the gym. It had been rather uncomfortable, to say the least, with her acting that way... James still felt tense and apprehensive, which he really shouldn't have been at the moment. Still... Jessie and Meowth... he wasn't going down without a fight, for their sakes. At last he nodded, and tossed out the Pokéball he had decided on. 

"Victreebel!" Victreebel had been getting a lot of experience lately, and hopefully it could pull through at least the first battle. The second... he would just have to wait and see. "Start off with your Razor Leaf!" 

"Reflect it, Kadabra!" To James' dismay, the Kadabra's Reflect was easily able to send all of Victreebel's sharp leaves straight back at it; fortunately, it was able to dodge them all, screaming angrily as it did so. 

"Get in closer and use your Slam a few times!" James suggested next, but Sabrina soon had a command to counter that as well. 

"Why don't you Disable that move?" she called out to her psychic Pokémon. A steady glow built up around the Kadabra, but James had a much better idea as Victreebel continued heading toward it's opponent. 

"Give it some Stun Spore while it's busy!" He couldn't be sure, but he thought his own Pokémon seemed almost ecstatic as it obeyed him, spraying it's sparkling spores out in a huge cloud that completely enveloped the unlucky Kadabra. It fell to the floor heavily, twitching and moaning in an odd way. It obviously couldn't get up to fight any more. 

Then again, maybe he could understand why Victreebel seemed so happy... after all, it had just defeated a very powerful Pokémon. 

"Wonderful," Sabrina commented as she called Kadabra back, a hint of a smile on her face. "Not many trainers have gotten this far lately... In any case, would you like to switch Pokémon before we begin the second round?" 

"No... I don't think so." Victreebel hadn't been hurt, and it seemed eager to battle more. James was fairly sure he wouldn't have a problem with winning this badge after all. 

That is, he _was_ sure until Sabrina called out Alakazam. 

It wasn't too long before Victreebel had been overwhelmed by the teleporting Pokémon; it was simply too fast. And with a finishing Psybeam attack, Alakazam was declared the winner. 

_This is it... there's no way I can win now. Weezing, Marril, Dugtrio, Seel... none of them can stand up to that. But what about..._

James shook his head hard. There was no way he could possibly use the Pokémon he had bought from that girl... he hadn't even looked to see what was in it! He had been too embarrassed to look. If he used it now, he could end up looking twice as foolish as he already did. But still... if there was really no other option... 

"More proof that I'm a complete imbecile," he muttered to himself, grabbing his new Pokéball quickly lest he lose what little courage he had left. "Pokéball, go!" he yelled out, tossing it almost angrily. Well, _that_ felt stupid. He didn't even know what to call it. 

It was almost like he could feel Myrea's eyes burning holes into the back of his head. She knew what he was doing. And of course she disapproved. 

It seemed to be taking forever for the Pokémon to materialize, but that was probably only because of the tension. Yet when it did begin to take form, James knew instantly what it was. 

"That's a... a... G... Ge..." 

"Gengar!" the purple ghost Pokémon announced proudly. James realized he had been talking to himself and tried to stop looking so shocked. Luckily, everyone else was so busy staring at Gengar that they didn't notice. 

"My, my," Sabrina remarked in faint surprise. "I haven't seen too many Gengar show up at this gym..." Then she smiled. "But Alakazam loves a challenge. Let's begin then. Alakazam, start with Confusion!" 

That all too familiar glow grew up around the psychic Pokémon, but it soon faded when it noticed what Gengar was doing. Which was rolling on the floor, laughing. 

Everyone in the gym stared silently at this for quite some time before Sabrina snapped out of it. "Uh... Alakazam, don't let it confuse you like that! It's just trying to catch you with your guard down! Teleport behind it and use Confusion, now!" 

Alakazam disappeared. So did Gengar. A split second later, Alakazam reappeared exactly where it should, which would have been behind Gengar. 

"Ala?" it wondered, completely baffled. Before it had time to do much of anything else, Gengar popped up right in front of it, it's long pink tongue shooting out to slurp it right up the middle of it's face. 

"G-g-g-g-gengar!" it giggled hysterically. 

"Oh, Alakazam!" Sabrina cried out as the ghost Pokémon's Lick attack began to take effect. It was then that James realized he should be giving Gengar orders instead of just staring like everyone else. At least Myrea making him memorize so many other Pokémon's attacks hadn't been a waste of time. 

"Finish it with Nightshade!" 

"Geng, gengar!" It complied quite happily, leaving poor Alakazam paralyzed _and_ damaged enough that it was certain to not be able to battle further. "GENGAR!" the victorious Pokémon laughed. It turned around and it's eyes landed on James. If anything, it's smile seemed to grow twice as wide. 

"Umm... oh, good job, Gengar! Now, return!" Fortunately, he was able to recall it without any problems. He was already beginning to realize that this Pokémon was going to be more than a handful. 

"That was wonderful, James. Very nicely done," Sabrina was saying as she headed in his direction. James just wiped the perspiration from his forehead and tried to sound as grateful for her praise as he could. She seemed to sense and understand the stressful feeling he was still trying to overcome, and he was exceedingly thankful that she gave him his badge without much of a show. 

Once she had walked away, he turned to look for Myrea and Jon. They weren't sitting where they had been. Sighing, he headed for the door, not so much as glancing at his new Marsh Badge before shoving it into his pocket. It didn't mean so much to him if... 

The moment he stepped outside, his thoughts were interrupted again by someone flinging their arms around him so abruptly that he jumped in surprise. 

"James, I'm so sorry! I was so mean to you... and you were right all along..." James looked down at the top of Myrea's head, then over at Jon, who just smiled and shrugged slightly. 

"Well, you just didn't know..." He then proceeded to tell her the whole story while she finally looked up at him and listened intently to every word. "...but I just don't see how that girl... could have so many ghost-type Pokémon like that..." 

"We may never know. At least you helped her out... But the point really is, I've been acting so mean! I'm sorry... You're going to forgive me, aren't you?" 

She looked so earnest, staring up at him, that he had to smile. "Of course I am." Even though he had said he had no idea how that girl had found him, he had a very good suspicion. But Myrea really didn't need to know any of that. 

Mercifully silent up to that point, Jon chose that moment to remind them of his presence. "Are you two gonna hug all day? People _are_ staring... Hey Jim, mind if I take a look at that badge? I bet it's cool!" 

"Some things never change, do they?" James sighed to Myrea. Then they both laughed. 

They spent most of the rest of the day just enjoying being together, Myrea and Jon both congratulating James on his win at least once every five minutes. Which made him feel better about it than before; after all, it wouldn't have meant much to him if it hadn't been for his friends... no matter where they happened to be right now. 

***** 

"Okay... okay... OKAY! I'll see ya soon, then..." 

Jon hung the phone back up in the booth, then turned to give Myrea and James an impertinent grin. "They'll be here to pick me up in about an hour." His smile faded a bit, and he sighed. "I knew this was coming... I guess I have to say I'll miss you guys..." 

"Well, you don't have to say it if you don't mean it," Myrea began seriously. 

"But I do! I mean it," the boy pouted. 

"Oh, you're so cute," Myrea giggled, getting down on her knees to hug him. "It was so nice to travel with you, and you know we'll meet again someday, right?" 

"Yeah... we will. And take care of Jim, will ya?" 

"Of course I will," Myrea responded cheerfully, leaning back to straighten his hat. "And James, wipe that look off your face." 

Jon grinned hugely as she stood up again. James scowled. It wasn't fair how he just knew things like that. "Now, I'll leave you two... boys... alone to say goodbye, okay?" 

After she walked off, they just stared at each other for a time. "Are you sure you don't want us to wait with you until they get here?" 

"Yeah... it's okay. You two got a long ways to go to get to Fuschia. I'll be fine 'til the car gets here." 

"Alright then... I guess this is goodbye for now..." 

"For now," Jon agreed. James finally bent down to hug him, somehow feeling sad despite his smile. 

"Take care of yourself." 

"You too. And make sure to keep your girlfriend happy." 

"Can I tell you something? She's--" 

"Not your girlfriend? I know that." 

"You... you... _know_ that? Then how come..." 

"It's fun to get ya upset, Jim." 

"Promise me one more thing," James sighed, standing up to look down at him. "That you'll work on your annoying attitude problem." 

"As long as you work on your dependency problem." 

"You know... I would get you for that, but Myrea would find out, and I wouldn't hear the end of it for the next five miles. But really, kid... we all need someone to be with, if only every now and then..." "I know. I learned a lot from ya, Jim... I won't forget any of it." They both smiled at each other again, this time a bit more fondly. 

"Be seein' ya..." 

"Yes... goodbye." 

James finally turned to head after Myrea; when he was about twenty feet away, Jon yelled after him. "Oh yeah! And take care of Victreebel, too!" 

"I will!" 

"Take real good care of it, 'cause next time Riza's gonna beat it!" 

"We'll just see about that!" With Jon now lost to view behind him, James continued walking and caught up with Myrea at last. 

"So... how did it go?" 

"Pretty good," James reflected, falling into step beside her. "And as much as I hate to admit it, I'll miss the kid." 

"James..." she began warningly. 

"I know, I was only kidding." They were silent for a long time before Myrea spoke again. 

"You've really come a long way, haven't you?" 

"I suppose so... I have great new friends... five badges... I've changed too... I hardly recognize myself sometimes. I couldn't have done it without you, if that's what you want to hear..." 

"Don't give me _all_ the credit," she smiled. 

"And how could I forget my Pokémon... they helped a lot, too. I couldn't have gotten this far without them either. And now that I--" 

"GENGAR!" 

It might have been pure fright, but it was more likely just Gengar's friendly Lick attack that left James immobilized in the middle of the road, his new ghost Pokémon still clinging to his head and laughing out it's name. 

"Uh... James? Are you okay? James?" 

He wasn't quite able to respond to Myrea's questions. But he _would_ be okay... eventually. He just had to remind himself that nothing in his life was ever going to be completely easy.


	11. Another Friend

Wish: Chapter Eleven - Another Friend 

Notes: In this chapter, someone catches up with Myrea at last.... Just who is it? Well, read it. :P With that said, I'll now say that I like this chapter. I actually think it's cute. ^_^; 

Disclaimer: I'm tempted to say that I own Pokémon... yes, very tempted. But I won't. :P 

***** 

"And how are you today, Weezing? ...hm, I see. We'll have to work on that, then. Dugtrio? Seel? Marill? How is it for you today? ...Oh, that's good. Victreebel... Victreebel, I know, but you really can let go of my leg, I'm not going anywhere... And Gengar, if you wouldn't mind, please get off my head... Well, you two can goof around all day if you want, but the rest of us are going to get more training in. ....What do you mean _more_ training? You need all you can get! You want to get to the Pokémon League too, don't you?" 

"That's so cute." 

James whirled around as best as he was able with Victreebel's vine still wrapped around his leg and Gengar still perched on his head. Myrea was leaning casually against the only tree in the area, looking at him and his assembled Pokémon with an amused smile. He hadn't heard her approach, and had just assumed she was back at their temporary camp where he had left her. 

"What do you mean?" 

"It's cute. The way you talk to your Pokémon before you train. It's almost like... you understand what they're saying," she added reflectively. 

"Well... I do understand what they're saying," he told her sheepishly, blushing just the tiniest bit at this admission. 

"You see? Adorable!" Myrea concluded brightly, as if what he'd just said proved it. 

"I'm afraid I still don't understand..." 

His friend just shook her head. "You don't have to." Then she smiled again. "But you know, your Pokémon all love you a lot." 

"I guess... but..." he began, pointing at Victreebel and Gengar. 

"What about them? They seem pretty attached to you." 

"Not funny." 

"Okay, okay, I know. So what are you trying to say?" 

"It's almost like they're... jealous of each other or someth-- OW! Stop pulling my hair, Gengar! Victreebel, my leg doesn't bend that... cut it out!" 

A few seconds later, James was sprawled out flat on his back, staring dazedly at the sky while Gengar laughed and Victreebel screamed shrilly. "Okay... how about a five minute break?" he groaned. He continued to lay there while Myrea returned all of his Pokémon to their balls for him, then managed to get to his feet with her help. 

"Well... don't worry about it too much, James," she said soothingly, patting his arm as if to console him. "Some Pokémon just don't get along too well with others at first... they should come around eventually." 

"Yes, but will they come around before or after I've been ripped in half?" he muttered in reply. 

"Let's not get carried away now," was all she would say before she took his arm to help him back to camp. 

In the weeks since Jon had gone back home, it had seemed deathly quiet every place they had stopped... not that that was a terribly bad thing. But sometimes James found himself missing the boy's constant babbling; it had reminded him of Meowth, in a way. The only difference was that Meowth actually had the sense to shut his big mouth before he got pummeled. Usually. This made James smile. Then he thought of Jessie. And frowned. 

Her emotions lately had been disturbing - a sometimes jumbled mess of everything from rage to bitterness to... fear? Sadness? It was hard to tell, with the way she seemed to be muffling them. Either of those was hardly an emotion he would expect Jessie to be capable of displaying. So maybe she was angry and bitter on the outside, but fearful and sad on the inside...? 

He suddenly realized that his shoulders were slouching and he was shuffling his feet as he walked. And Myrea was looking at him funny. 

"What's wrong?" 

"Not much..." 

She didn't ask again the rest of the way back, but continued giving him funny glances, which he pretended not to notice as he struggled to fight back the depressed feeling that kept looming over his like a dark cloud. Even when they were back in camp and Myrea began fixing something for them to eat, he just sat there watching her blankly, not really seeing her. He didn't know how he must look at the moment, but it actually never even crossed his mind. There wasn't room for much else right now except Jessie and her emotions. 

***** 

This time, lunch consisted of sandwiches. Myrea sighed. Well, at least it wasn't food from a can again. 

She sneaked another glance over at James, who was just sitting there cross-legged with his chin on his hands. At first glance, it seemed like he was sulking. Maybe he was still thinking about his unruly Pokémon. But looking again, she saw that he was staring at _her_. Blinking a few times in surprise, she lifted a hand hesitantly to wave in front of his face. No response. With another sigh, she turned back to her work. 

_Of course he's not really looking at you... well, he's looking at you, but he's seeing someone else. No need to be so surprised._

She finished up quickly and handed James his sandwich. She had made it twice as big as her own, fully knowing how much he could eat. But he just sat there, staring at it as blankly as he had at her. She nibbled at her own, watching him until she couldn't stand it anymore. 

"James, wake up!" 

"Hm? Oh... I didn't see... I didn't know... sorry," he finally mumbled. 

"You're thinking about her again, aren't you?" 

He seemed taken aback by her blunt question, but at least he admitted it. "I... yes." 

"Do you really think she's doing that bad?" 

"That bad? What makes you think... oh. I guess you can just tell." He smiled weakly, which was good. Myrea knew that if he was too far gone, he wouldn't be smiling at all. "It's just a feeling I have... I think she's getting worse without me around. I only hope that I'll see her soon and... she'll understand. I'm sure... sure she'll understand... and everything will be alright." 

Myrea realized that he was reassuring himself, and she smiled. James had actually worked it out on his own. Soon, maybe he wouldn't need her around anymore... No, she had to take care of him. It was just something she had to do. 

Feeling better, she watched in fond amusement as he devoured his entire lunch in three bites. It surely must have broken some kind of record. 

"Do we have any dessert?" he asked next, giving her the most hopeful look she had ever seen. She just started laughing, and couldn't stop for quite some time, not even when James got up to look at her more closely and ask what was so funny. She couldn't have told him even if she knew the answer. 

***** 

"How far are we going today?" 

James studied the landscape ahead while awaiting Myrea's answer. She had been exploding into random fits of giggling ever since they had packed up to leave after lunch. Exactly what was so funny was beyond him. 

The path ahead of them twisted and turned in odd ways, which might have seemed unnecessary if one had failed to notice the large amount of rocks and scattered bushes that dotted the terrain here. Every so often, there was a tree beside the path, but those were few and far between. 

"Oh... let's see," Myrea began at last, managing to get her mirth sufficiently under control. "A couple more hours, at the least, then we'll stop and train a bit before nightfall. It'll be interesting, training under these conditions," she nodded, indicating the land around them. They both were silent again for at least another ten minutes, with Myrea actually not laughing once. James' thoughts traveled back to the worry he had felt earlier in the day for Jessie, and that reminded him of a question he had been wanting to ask Myrea. 

"Myrea?" 

"Yes, James?" 

"I was wondering... isn't there anyone back home that _you're_ worried about?" 

"Well, I suppose..." 

"I know you said you had a sister... Aren't you worried about her being there all by herself?" 

...Yes and no. She can take care of herself, I know that well enough. The only thing I'm truly worried about is how mad she'll be at me the next time she sees me." 

"Mad?" 

"Yep. She'll gripe and complain about how I got to go on a 'cool adventure' - those will be her exact words - and then if she gets to meet _you_... well, she'll _really_ be ticked." 

James blinked, confused. "Why?" 

"Because... oh, never mind. Another one of those things you probably won't understand." 

"O... kay." When she put it that way, he believed her. "What's your sister like, anyway?" 

She seemed to choose her words carefully as she replied. "Emily is... she's a little dramatic. Over-dramatic, at times. She's also stubborn and a major pain in the butt. I guess that's just the sister in me talking." She stopped to laugh for a moment before continuing. "She's really a very sweet girl, if you take the time to get to know her. I just hope that our house is surviving with only her taking care of it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if--" 

"Stop right there!" 

Myrea and James did stop. Then turned to look at each other. The voice had sounded right above their heads... but how could that be? James thought Myrea was turning pale. 

"That voice... she..." 

"That's right! Don't move an inch! Hahh!" Seeming to fall from the sky, a girl suddenly landed right in front of them, her knees only bending slightly before she straightened upright and stuck her fists on her hips to glare at Myrea. James looked up quickly to see that there was a tree above them where she must have jumped down from; at least he knew now that this girl hadn't _really_ fallen from the sky. 

Meanwhile, Myrea had taken a step back and was staring at this girl with considerably more shock than James had ever seen her display. "Emily!" she yelped when she was finally able to speak. 

"But that... but that's your sister!" James spluttered. It was his turn to stare in complete surprise now. 

The girl standing before them was short; Myrea was only a head shorter than James, but this girl was head and shoulders and then some. But then, that was just because she was considerably younger. Her short blonde hair curled up against her face, framing a pair of purple eyes similar to Myrea's. Her pink dress and knee-high socks made her look even younger than she probably was, but even with her slight stature, James could tell right away that she was a force to be reckoned with. Maybe it was just the way her eyes blazed as she looked at Myrea. He was feeling sort of glad she hadn't seemed to notice him yet. 

"Em..." Myrea was saying now, looking somewhat calmer and less shocked, folding her arms tightly and giving her a look that would have made James flinch, but seemed to have no affect whatsoever on her sister. "Would you mind explaining exactly why you are here?" 

"That's simple enough, Big Sister. I'm here to stop this from continuing any further!" Emily announced with all the drama Myrea had said she had, pointing a finger right at her. 

"Stop _what_ from continuing?" Myrea demanded. 

"This! It's gone on too long and it's really becoming unfair, besides." Here she paused, then abruptly folded her hands in front of her and wailed, "You're hogging all the fun! Since when do you get to go out on a cool adventure and leave me behind by myself?" 

"You weren't by yourself," Myrea stated flatly. 

"But this... this is an adventure! None of my friends want to go on adventures... and besides that, _their_ idea of an adventure is camping out in their backyards." Emily sniffed at that idea, then hurried on. "I thought you agreed that we could have an adventure together! Why did you just run off and leave me with your boring job? And... and..." She trailed off to stare at James as though she hadn't noticed his presence before now. He smiled weakly and half waved at her. 

"HIM!" she declared loudly, pointing that finger at him now instead while looking back at Myrea. "You get to go... on a cool adventure... with HIM! Augghh! This is so... so... so unfair!" 

"I think someone needs to calm down now," Myrea said tiredly, rubbing her forehead. 

"Well, I'll tell you one thing. You gotta come home with me now." Emily _had_ seemed calmer when she said that, at least a little bit. 

"No." 

That little bit of calmness, however, was lost after Myrea's reply. She moved so quickly that James wasn't even sure how she managed to reach his ear, but she somehow had it firmly in her grip, dragging his head down to her level along with it. 

"Emily! Stop that!" Myrea scolded, but Emily's fingers didn't loosen in the slightest. It felt like his ear was clamped in a pair of pliers. 

"I'm not letting him go until you say you're coming back with me!" 

"Let's try to stop being childish here, Em." 

"Um... that really hurts... could you..." 

"Not until you come back with me!" Emily proclaimed again, still speaking to her sister. 

"Well... I'm not coming back with you. But you could come with us." 

"Huh? ....Really?!" Emily squeaked, forgetting to hold James' ear. He straightened up to rub it gratefully. 

"I guess so," Myrea sighed. "Since there's no way I'm going home with you... not yet... and there's not going to be any other way to get you off my back... I guess so." 

"Oh, this is so great! Better than you coming back! You won't regret it!" Emily was practically jumping up and down in excitement. 

"Well, you've got to consider a few things first," Myrea began matter-of-factly. "What about our house?" 

"It's gonna be fine... I told everyone I would be gone for awhile, and it's not like there's anything there that really needs taken care of." 

"So... what about school?" 

"You know as well as I do that we're both way farther ahead than we should be at our age, and we aren't even in public school anyway." 

"Clothes? Or any other stuff you're going to need?" 

"Brought them all with me in the first place. I wasn't sure how long it would take to find you." 

"Which brings me to another thing... how the heck _did_ you find me?" 

"Big sister-seeking radar!" Emily beamed happily. 

"Okay... forget I asked," Myrea sighed, rubbing her forehead yet again. James just smiled as he watched. Finally, someone who actually managed to fluster Myrea. 

"Well, since you'll be traveling with us now... I guess I have to introduce you to James. So Em, this is James. James, this is my little sister, Emily. What do you think?" Myrea lifted an eyebrow in question at James, while Emily merely gazed up at him worshipfully. 

"Well... I'd have to say... she doesn't look much like you." And that was true; besides their eyes, they really didn't look that much alike. 

"I'm sorry I hurt you, sweetie!" Emily burst out suddenly, rushing forward to hug him tightly around the waist. James' eyes bulged. 

"Never mind... she... she's definitely your sister," he croaked. "Could you... my ribs..." 

"Sorry again!" she giggled, stepping back at last. Now it was Myrea's turn to watch with a smile. 

"Um... so do you have any Pokémon?" he asked her next. 

"Oh, I collect pretty Pokémon! I have a Starmie and a Vaporeon. They're so beautiful... Did you know you're cute?" 

He had to stare at her big starry eyes for quite some time before he realized she was still talking to him. Why was it that so many girls seemed to look at him like that now since he had taken off his Team Rocket uniform? He had no clue. 

"Okay, that's enough," Myrea stepped in, shaking her head. "We've got a long ways to go yet before we stop and train. And--" 

"Oh, I wanna train too! I wanna battle with James!" Emily cheered. 

"Well... I guess it couldn't hurt. How about we do that now and walk later? James?" 

"I... sure." He didn't figure there was any way he could say no and survive. 

It only took a few minutes before they were ready to battle. James eyed the rocks and bushes in their immediate vicinity. This would indeed be an interesting match. 

"Gooo Vaporeon!" Emily called out. The sleek form of the Vaporeon took shape as she watched in adoration. "Ooh, it's so pretty... don't you think so, James?" 

"Yes," he smiled. His grin got bigger when he called out his own Pokémon. "Go, Weezing!" 

Emily seemed to deflate. "Tha... that's not pretty," she commented slowly. 

"Looks good to me," James continued smiling, patting Weezing's biggest head. "Weezing's been my friend for a long time." 

"That's sweet... but now it's time to battle! Alright Vaporeon, go! Quick Attack!" Emily had gone from being starry-eyed to being all-business so quickly it was amazing. 

"Vapor!" her Pokémon agreed, launching itself into the air at Weezing, still managing to appear extremely graceful. 

"Smoke Screen!" James told Weezing. 

"Weeeez..." Thick smoke roiled out of the poison Pokémon's mouth; Vaporeon was thrown off enough by this that it only managed to hit the bottom of Weezing, which didn't move it very much. The smoke was spread out all around Vaporeon now, and James quickly saw his opportunity. 

"Weezing, hide behind a rock and wait for the smoke to clear!" It was too hard to see, but James was sure it had obeyed. 

"Just wait, Vaporeon! You'll have another chance after the smoke is gone!" 

"Vapooor..." The smoke dissipated quickly enough, but then Vaporeon seemed confused as it looked all around for Weezing, which seemed to have disappeared. 

"Um... where's Weezing?" Emily asked. "Vaporeon, just look around until you find it, it can't be far!" 

"Weezing, Tackle!" 

Shooting out from behind a large rock very close to Vaporeon, Weezing slammed into it head-on, sending the unfortunate water Pokémon flying across the field to land at Emily's feet. 

"Oh! I'm sorry, Vaporeon... but nice job anyway!" The two returned their Pokémon, then Emily just stood staring at James. "You're so good!" she squealed abruptly. It wasn't too long before she was squeezing the breath out of him again. 

"Um... aren't you supposed to be mad or something?" he choked out. 

"No... you were too good, and I don't actually train as much as I should, anyway. But it was fun to battle you! Let's do it again sometime!" 

"There won't be a sometime if you don't let me breathe soon..." 

"Alright, that's enough, break it up," Myrea cut in, somehow managing to step in between them. "We've got a ways to go yet, and--" 

"But I was having fun! Why do you always mess up my fun?!" 

"You were being annoying!" 

"I'm not annoying!" 

"She's annoying, isn't she, James?" 

"I'm not annoying, right, James?" 

"Uh..." 

"See? Annoying!" 

"He said I'm not, are you deaf?" 

James listened to those kinds of exchanges pretty much all the way to their next campsite. It certainly wasn't so quiet anymore. At least there was that. 

***** 

"...Lemon." 

"No way! Lemon is gross! Strawberry is better. And the kind with the caramel... those are the best." 

"Those are good... but I still like lemon." 

"Ew! I can't stand it! Are you sure?" 

Myrea sat back and watched with a faint smile as James and Emily debated on the subject of candy. Actually, they'd been talking about it for almost half an hour. They both seemed to share a common passion for chocolate, that was for sure. She tuned them out for the moment to turn her focus inward. 

She didn't really mind that her sister was around now... besides the fact that she was being just as annoying as usual. _But there goes your chance to be alone with James for awhile... God, Myrea, that's pathetic. Get over it._

"Hey... now who's spaced out?" 

James was grinning at her in a way that made her grin right back. "Guess it's catching. Been around you too long." He pretended to be hurt, and she just laughed. 

"We wanted to know what _you_ like," Emily informed her. 

"Oh... lemon." 

"Ahhh! Are you people crazy?!" her sister cried. James actually started laughing. 

_Nah... this won't be too bad._


	12. For the Better

Wish: Chapter Twelve - For the Better 

Notes: ...And with this chapter, this fic officially becomes the longest thing I've ever written! o_O James runs into some old enemies, and we discover that he has changed in more ways than even they can believe... He also gets an incredible TWO gym badges in this chapter, which you probably will be amazed by, considering that this chapter is sorta short.. What can I say, this story is starting to tire me, and I'm getting lazy... ^_^ 

Disclaimer: I'm even tired of thinking of ways to say I don't own Pokémon... 

*****

"Did you see his face when you called out Weezing? And then when it out-poisoned his prized poison Pokémon? It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen!" 

"I guess it _was_ pretty... 'cool'," James smiled at Emily. He was definitely more than inclined to agree with that. 

Just five minutes ago, he had finished up his sixth gym battle, earning himself the Soul Badge. Koga's poison types had been tough, but Gengar had been more than a match, and James had let Weezing finish Koga's final Pokémon, a Venonat. It had seemed lately that Weezing had needed a boost in confidence; it had looked lonely nearly every time James had called it out in the past several months. It was still missing Arbok, he was sure. It might even miss Jessie and Meowth, too. James knew the feeling. 

"James! Are you coming? Come on, you Slowpoke, Myrea's waiting for us at the Pokémon Center!" James smiled again and walked a little faster to catch up with Emily. 

So, to make a long story short, his latest victory had been easy. It was made even easier by the fact that this time he had experienced almost no anxiety at all. But the three long, hard months of training he had put in since his last gym battle was probably the most help. Even though not all of them got along too well still, James felt that his little "team" of Pokémon was definitely stronger now than he ever would have thought possible. 

He was also more determined than ever before to prove to his friends that they didn't need Team Rocket to be happy. Any doubt he had ever had to the contrary had been completely erased. But how hard it would be to convince them... that worried him a little. 

"There you guys are! What took you so long to get here?" Myrea called out, running over to meet them from just outside the Center door. 

"James grew Slowpoke legs," Emily giggled, poking his side. "But I guess he was just... what's that word?... preoccupied." 

"Oh?" Myrea looked a little curious. James shrugged. 

"Just thinking. Say, how about we get something to eat? I'm starved." 

"Yeah, preoccupied with his stomach," Myrea laughed. Then her expression changed completely, becoming almost adoring; James cleared his throat uncomfortably. "But he was wonderful in that match, wasn't he? He was so in control this time, so commanding..." 

"Yeah, and handsome, too!" Emily squealed. She had the same look as Myrea now. James blinked. 

The two sisters both dived at him at the same time; he dodged and ended up flat on his face on the ground, Myrea and Emily piled on top of him, laughing hysterically. He sighed, fervently hoping that no one was watching before he started laughing too. 

***** 

"Remind me _again_ why we're in Fuschia?" the orange-haired girl asked for at least the third time. She shifted her little egg-shaped Pokémon from one arm to another, sighing. Ash really was a pain sometimes. 

"We were passing by, remember? And there's that really great restaurant over on Third Street... with the killer Chinese food..." Ash grinned. 

"Girls are awfully pretty in Fuschia, too..." Brock muttered, looking around appreciatively. Misty sighed again. Pathetic. Both of them. 

They continued on their way to the restaurant, but before long Brock's attention was diverted again. "See? Just look at that lucky guy. He's got _two_ girls crawling all over him." 

Misty looked where Brock was pointing and saw a strange sight: two girls _tackling_ a guy to the ground? But they were all laughing, even the guy, so he wasn't being mugged or something. She couldn't see much of him except for blue hair in a ponytail; she just shrugged and started to turn away. Strange people. 

"Man... I wonder if he'd share... He doesn't need both, does he?" she heard Brock say as he continued watching in obvious envy. Hooking an arm through his, Misty pulled him away. 

"C'mon, Brock. Ash is gonna implode if he doesn't eat soon," she groaned. She dragged him off toward the restaurant, following Ash, and forgetting entirely about those two odd girls and the guy. 

***** 

"Chineeeese food! That's where _we're_ going!" 

"I don't know... I saw this cute little sushi bar back there..." 

"No! Chinese! You think James is gonna fill up on sushi?!" 

"Umm... how about you let James decide?" James cut in on the girls' argument. 

"Wellll... good idea," Myrea laughed. "So where are we going _James_?" 

"I'd have to say... err... Chinese." 

"Yay!" Emily cheered. "Good choice!" 

"Now are you just saying that because she has your arm twisted like that or do you really want Chinese?" Myrea sighed. 

"Uh.. heheh... it's kind of both," James replied sheepishly. 

It didn't take long to get to the restaurant, since it was only just down the street, and it took them even less time for them to get seated and start poring over their menus. James was totally engrossed in deciding between two things, but something caught his attention, a little, oddly familiar squeaking noise coming from the direction of his feet. Looking down under the table, he saw a Togepi. 

James had only seen one Togepi in his entire life. He had doubted he'd ever see another. So that could only mean.. 

In a flash, he whipped his menu up over his face so that he could just peek over the top to scan the other tables. And there they were. 

Ash. Misty. Brock. 

The twerps. 

James wasn't too sure, but he thought he was about to faint. 

"Ohhh, look! What's this little Togepi doing here under our table?" Emily cooed beside him, reaching under to grab the little egg-shaped Pokémon and hold it up. 

"What a cutie," Myrea smiled as Togepi waved it's arms and continued squeaking, not shy in the least. "I guess it belongs to someone here in the restaurant..." 

"Why yes, it does," James heard Misty announce as she headed their way. Of course, by this time he had his face completely covered by the menu, willing himself to become invisible. "Sorry about that... it likes to run off and sometimes I don't even notice! But thanks for finding it for me, girls, and... and.." 

"James, why are you doing that?" he heard Emily ask. 

"I... umm..." 

"What are you hiding for? You aren't this shy," Myrea sighed, reaching up to pull the menu away from him. James was sure he was as white as the tablecloth. Especially when Misty started staring at him. 

"You said... his name is James? You sort of look like... do I know you?" 

"No, I don't think so..." 

"That voice... It _is_ you! JAMES!" And as she yelled this, she launched herself at him over the table, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and using it to yank him forward. "What kind of game are you trying to play here?! Are you using these poor innocent girls in one of your dumb schemes? Where's Jessie and Meowth??" 

By this time the whole restaurant was staring, and Brock and Ash had joined Misty at their table, both scowling at James in disapproval. James wasn't sure how to defend himself at that point, but fortunately Myrea seemed to know what to do. 

"Look. I don't know how you know James or what problem you have with him, but I suggest you just sit down quietly here with us now and stop making a scene." The look she had on her face was enough to make Misty let James go and sit down in a chair at their table, though reluctantly. Ash and Brock joined them slowly. The hum of conversation grew back around them as people lost interest in what wasn't turning out to be a fight after all. But their table, however, was dead silent until after the waitress had finally taken their orders and left. 

Soon after, Ash blurted out, "We haven't seen you in awhile. Or Jessie or Meowth. For months. We just thought that was a little strange... that you weren't trying to get Pikachu anymore..." 

"Get Pikachu?" Emily asked in confusion. 

"He means that I was a part of Team Rocket. And that as such, I tried to steal his Pikachu more times than I care to remember," James said dully. Emily had no idea of his involvement with Team Rocket yet, as James and Myrea had kept it to themselves. But now she knew. Surprisingly, she didn't say anything, just reached over to pat his hand gently, as if reassuring him that it was okay now. He acknowledged this with a faint smile, glad that she trusted him so much. 

Slowly then, in bits and pieces, he began pouring out his story of the past months, all that time spent apart from him closest friends, the agony of wanting to make them understand, the triumph of winning his badges. He even showed them for proof, but didn't leave them out long, since it didn't matter to him so much beyond that they should believe his story. Emily and Myrea were silent for the most part, adding small comments here and there when they thought it necessary. 

When he finished it was quiet again, for what seemed like a very long time. Then the food arrived, and for the most part they chatted over things that were purely mundane. James just ate quietly, knowing they must not believe him, from the way they glanced at him surreptitiously as if making sure he wasn't about to pull something. 

Eventually, Misty asked Myrea, "Hey... I need to talk to you for a moment. Is that okay?" As they left, James wished he didn't know they were going to talk about him. 

***** 

Myrea sighed and settled back against the bathroom wall. The bathroom of a Chinese restaurant was hardly the best place for a conversation, but there wasn't much of a choice at the moment. She studied the person in front of her; Misty, the slight, orange-haired girl who seemed to always carry her Togepi around, but had left it behind for now at the table with her friends. Myrea wasn't quite sure what to think of her yet, but she did realize this girl had a ferocious temper. Which meant using a little caution while talking to her. 

"Are you _sure_ about James?" Misty asked suspiciously. "I figured there was no way on earth _he_ could ever change, and--" 

"How well do you know him?" 

She seemed thrown off a bit by this question, biting her lip as she stopped to think. "Well, I... I know about his family, why he ran away to join Team Rocket... and I know he was a jerk, a conceited loser who cared for no one but himself..." Here she paused again before speaking more slowly. "But you know... there's something different about him now. It's hard to put my finger on it... he's changed slightly physically of course... but I think it's something about his face... something in his eyes. As much as I don't want to, I believe everything he's told us. What I don't understand it... why..." 

"Why? Well, that's simple," Myrea smiled. "Love." 

"L-love?" 

"Yep. See, he loves his friends very much. So much that he'd do all this for them, once he realized that he _did_ love them." 

"Oh... then that means that... he must also be in love with J... Je..." Misty couldn't seem to make herself finish, a deep blush spreading over her face. 

"Even if he won't admit it fully, I think he does," Myrea said in amusement. 

"I... I was wrong to judge him so quickly. It's really great that he's changed so much," Misty finally commented when she'd found her voice again. "And I never noticed this before, but.. he's... oh my god... he's so good-looking to me all of a sudden... I can't believe I just said that about JAMES!" she spluttered. "Could there be something wrong with me...?" 

"No," Myrea replied, still smiling as she grabbed the dazed girls' hand to lead her back out of the bathroom. "It's happened to the best of us." 

***** 

"And you believe it? Are you sure?" 

"Yes, I believe it! Why shouldn't _you_?" 

"I don't know.... he _is_ James, after all... but I guess he's a little different..." 

Misty sighed. Ash was just being stubborn, as usual. But she didn't expect any less of him. They were walking out of Fuschia again after leaving James and his two new friends behind. Misty had wished James luck in everything, especially Jessie; James had merely blushed and stammered a thank you, which had proven further that he _had_ changed, in a nearly miraculous way. 

"Miracles really do happen..." she commented half to herself. 

"Huh? Did you say something?" 

"No, Ash, I didn't," she groaned, grabbing his arm to drag him along a little faster in order to catch up with Brock, who was walking far ahead by now. 

_I'm sure we'll see James again someday..._

***** 

James had been expecting a boring trip, but the boat ride to Cinnabar Island one week later was anything but. But it wasn't too surprising, considering that going anywhere with two sisters like Myrea and Emily was hardly likely to be unentertaining. 

Not much was different about Cinnabar, except for Blaine's newly rebuilt gym, which was in a much more convenient place than the first one. James remembered all too well what had happened to _that_ one, although the gym leader didn't seem to remember _him_ at all. Which wasn't a bad thing. 

He allowed his own water-type Pokémon to drown out Blaine's fire-type competition, in a remarkably easy win that astonished even the gym leader himself. But James just smiled and accepted his badge humbly, the only thought on his mind of his friends, not himself. 

Winter was creeping toward spring now, as the three companions prepared to travel back to Viridian City, where this had all started, in order for James to win his final badge. The only thing that worried him at the moment was exactly who was the gym leader there now.. 

***** 

Please forgive me if the next chapter takes a long time to get done.. I'm working on a lot of other things too! Thanks for all the support so far though, it's been really great.. ^_^


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